


Thinking Of You (I Drive Myself Crazy)

by bugiiwonderland



Series: Paging Chief Kim, your husband is waiting for you at the conference room. [3]
Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternative Universe - Medical, Code Blue scenes on chapter 3, Fluff and Humor, Lots of kissing, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Mentions of death on chapter 3, Some angst, sass—lots of it.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-07-29 13:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 33,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20082967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bugiiwonderland/pseuds/bugiiwonderland
Summary: “CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. I REPEAT, CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. CALLING ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS, PLEASE HEAD TO CONFERENCE ROOM 1A IMMEDIATELY.”Jonghyun runs through the hallways as the code echoes through the whole hospital. He ignores Aron’s yell for him to slow down nor the worried and angry glances that his colleagues are giving him.He doesn’t care nor does he give a fucking damn.He doesn’t give a damn as he pushes one of his seniors out of his way.He doesn’t give a damn when one of the Department Heads’ yells at him that what he’s doing will make him lose his position.He doesn’t give a damn as he punches the guards for stopping him to go to where he needs to be.“Enough Jonghyun,”Jaehyun stops him before he punches another guard for getting in his way.“get in, you don’t have much time.”





	1. MONDAY

**Author's Note:**

> Title’s from [*NSYNC’s Thinking Of You (I Drive Myself Crazy).](https://open.spotify.com/track/6aw26tMh7aY9S7rqQDDaIQ?si=YDgQHOBMTj2xJRpuq0XpBg)
> 
> Hi, I’ve realized that I’ve made everything confusing regarding the “Emergency Department” and “Trauma Department” 🙃  
So, to make things simple (since it’ll be hard to edit it all) Jonghyun and his team are Trauma Surgeons and under the Trauma Department which also shares the same department with the Emergency Department, and thus, a lot of times they can be found there and do their rounds/rotations there—but the Trauma Team’s priority is Trauma cases/patients, thus (again) they’re always in surgery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommended listening: [Paul Kim’s Me After You](https://open.spotify.com/track/5AkyvofVWUqds8x1HHgDU9?si=En65JplwS1a5GrFonpbVmw)
> 
> **09-28-19 changes and some additions**

**[07:21]**

A soft thud as someone’s back hits the door followed by the sound of the lock clicking echoes in on-call room A, along with the hushed moans of it’s regular inhabitants as they do their usual business. 

“Jonghyun,” Minhyun whispered against Jonghyun’s lips and the other hums in reply. Minhyun groans, knowing that that’s the only coherent reply that he’ll be getting from Jonghyun as the latter starts trailing kisses from his lips to his neck. Minhyun closes his eyes and sighs.

_ What they need right now is to talk and not this. _

He feels Jonghyun’s fingers start traveling underneath his shirt and he stops the other’s hand. “Jonghyun,” Minhyun repeats, staring straight at Jonghyun. The other looks up at him, eyes blazed with desire that immediately fades, understanding what's going to happen next. 

“We need to talk,” Minhyun says, as gentle as he can. Jonghyun’s expression hardens and the older sighs, walking towards the bed and lying on it. Minhyun stays rooted in place, watching how Jonghyun grows more irritated by the minute as he massages his temples. 

“I’m leaving in a few hours Min, can’t we just do this some other time?” Jonghyun asks him tiredly and Minhyun sighs. This isn’t the first _ ‘some other time’; _ in fact, this _ ‘some other time’ _ has been happening for the last 2 months ever since he told Jonghyun that he decided to do his fellowship in Trauma Surgery. 

Minhyun remembers that day very clearly. He was buzzing in joy as he prepares for their long awaited (and have been postponed many times) date night. He was singing the whole day in Jonghyun’s apartment as he cooks the older’s favorite dishes, wishing and hoping that the latter would arrive earlier so that he can tell him the great news. 

Jonghyun did arrive earlier than expected, and their candle-lit dinner was going well with them talking about the usual crazy antics of their teammates along with the patients their department had that day. Jonghyun praised the dishes that he prepared but also teased him that he needs to add more salt next time, making Minhyun pout at the latter. 

It was such a perfect night. The apartment was filled with laughter as they relax and talk about everything and nothing. The way they laughed as they tease each other every chance they get, the way Jonghyun smiled so brightly with no hint of worry and burden of his responsibilities of being the chief of the department—really, it was one of the best—that Minhyun instantly decided that it’s the perfect time to tell Jonghyun the great news. 

Sadly, what Minhyun thought was great news isn’t the same for Jonghyun and their perfect night was ruined. 

The moment that Minhyun told Jonghyun about the fellowship, the older turned rigid. Jonghyun’s reaction is unforgettable and will forever be imprinted in his brain. It was as if Minhyun was a ten-ton truck hitting and killing him instantly. The way Jonghyun looked at him in pain as if he stabbed him over and over again was a reaction that he didn’t expect. 

Everything changed between them since that night, or more like everything went back to how they were before. Gone were the teasing, the sweet actions, long conversations on their day and their plans in life, and instead, it was replaced by desperate kisses that always, always leads to sex—whenever, wherever Jonghyun and him meet when they’re free. 

At first, Minhyun went along with it, especially knowing what happened with Jonghyun. But as time passed and Jonghyun still acted as if he's going to die on him any minute, Minhyun decided to take matters in his own hands. 

The problem is, Minhyun forgot how good at escaping Jonghyun is. 

That no matter how much Minhyun tries to talk with the other, Jonghyun as always, would have an excuse and would always find a way to postpone the needed talk. 

_That is until now._

Minhyun takes a deep breath and sits next to Jonghyun. “We can’t, I’m sorry.”

Jonghyun breathes out exasperatedly and covers his face with his arm. Minhyun already expected this reaction from Jonghyun, yet it still stings. 

“I’m sure you know that I’ve already submitted my fellowship application to Pinky sunbaenim... she told me that she had approved it, but apparently, you haven’t.” Minhyun says, watching Jonghyun’s reaction. The other’s expression remained closed-up that Minhyun can’t read what’s going on in Jonghyun’s head right now—that is until he sees Jonghyun’s hand. 

It’s not really that noticeable, but he’s too attuned to Jonghyun and knows him all too well. He knows the meaning behind every smile that the other has in his face, knows the different glimmer in his eyes, and he also knows what it means when Jonghyun clenches his fist too tight. 

He had witnessed that on their first date after all—and though Jonghyun’s hand tremors begin to lessen when they started dating six months ago, but after the night that he told Jonghyun about his plans—it’s becoming worse. 

And it’s not only Minhyun that’s noticing it—some of their team too. There were countless times that Minhyun saw Minki looking at Jonghyun in worry and concern, contemplating on how he should tell Jonghyun to get his hand checked, but Aron always stops him—because they know. Telling Jonghyun will only make it worse—especially knowing how _ stubborn _ their chief is, telling him to get himself checked will only make Jonghyun clam up—and they can’t afford that. 

So they just watch. 

Watch as Jonghyun’s anxiety keeps eating him up. Watch and let Jonghyun go through this as they helplessly pray that Jonghyun would someday realize that he has them and that he can lean on them. 

Minhyun takes Jonghyun’s hand and he doesn’t miss the flash of panic in Jonghyun’s face as the latter meets his eyes. It’s as if Jonghyun is begging him not to leave him but it soon diminishes as realization dawns on the latter, with his jaw set and mask on. Minhyun tries his best to control his expression—tries to hide the hurt of feeling locked out from the other and instead looks at Jonghyun with a warm and gentle smile. Minhyun already knew that this will be hard from the start—being with Jonghyun taught him that. 

“I’m sorry for not telling you and deciding on my own when you told me to think about it months ago… and I did Jonghyun. I really did. And my decision is still the same.” Minhyun lies down next to Jonghyun and the other remains quiet. It goes on and on until Minhyun loses track of time as they continued to stay like this with his hand laced with Jonghyun’s, intertwining and un-intertwining it, knowing that by doing this, Jonghyun would feel relaxed and hopefully would open up with him. 

“I’m sorry,” Jonghyun whispers breaking the silence. Minhyun smiles, happy that it worked and places a light kiss on the top of Jonghyun’s head. Jonghyun smiles at him apologetically and Minhyun shakes his head. Letting Jonghyun know that it’s okay, even when the warning bells in Minhyun’s head is telling him that it’s not. Letting Jonghyun know that he understands, even when no matter how hard he tries, he can’t. 

Especially when Jonghyun always coops up and hides in his cave, putting a wall between them before he can even utter a word. 

But just like the past, just like what he learned with being with Jonghyun, Minhyun knows that when this happens, he just has to wait and trust him. 

Because after all, isn’t that what makes a relationship work? Trusting each other, patiently waiting for the other, and learning how to compromise?

“I’m sorry… for doing this _again._” Jonghyun continues and Minhyun hums, intertwining their fingers. “I was scared—no, actually, I’m still scared Minhyun... and everyday, it gets worse… just thinking of you permanently joining the team and that my nightmare will happen scares me to death.” Jonghyun tells him, voice laced in anguish. 

Minhyun lies to his side and kisses Jonghyun softly on the lips. 

“I love you _ too much _ Minhyun-ah, I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Jonghyun sighed, leaning his head against his.

“I love you too,” he murmurs against Jonghyun’s forehead, “I promise that what happened before won’t happen to me, so please, don’t worry and just trust me okay?” It takes a few seconds before Jonghyun nods. Minhyun kisses the other, thanking Jonghyun for finally opening up and understanding his side. Minhyun knows that this is a huge step for Jonghyun and he’s grateful for it. 

“I love you,” Minhyun murmurs, and instead of answering him, Jonghyun kisses him. The kiss is different this time. Gone were the fervent kisses as if they’re not going to see the light of the day and instead it was replaced by slow passionate ones, enjoying this moment, knowing there’ll be a next time. 

Minhyun chuckles when he feels Jonghyun’s hand trailing underneath his shirt and the other pulls back and glares at him. 

“You really just have to ruin the moment huh?” Jonghyun grumbled, lying back on the bed. Minhyun leans his head on his hand and stares at Jonghyun. Smiling as he watches how adorable Jonghyun looks like when he’s annoyed. The way his lips are upturned into an adorable pout that Minhyun can’t help but place a light kiss on it. Jonghyun rolls his eyes and scoffs, takes his phone out of his pocket and starts playing a game on his phone. Minhyun chuckles and brushes the stray hair from the other’s eyes. 

“So you’re just going to ignore me when you’re leaving in a few hours?” Minhyun teases. Jonghyun glares at him for a second and continues to play his game. “I’ll probably start my fellowship next month and we might not be able to do this again,” 

“Well, who’s fault is that?” Instead of answering Jonghyun’s retort, Minhyun takes Jonghyun’s phone from him and throws it away. Sadly, Minhyun may have threw it a bit too hard that it falls loudly and clumsily on the floor. 

“That—that was an accident.” Jonghyun glares at him and Minhyun instantly kisses the other before Jonghyun orders him to buy him a new one. Jonghyun groans and pulls him closer, turning them over that the older is on top of him. 

“You know, all my fears aside, this is why I don’t want you in this department,” Jonghyun says, “I mean, how can I even trust you to lead a surgery when you always, always, suck at aiming?” 

“Well, I don’t always suck at aiming, in fact you're living proof of that,” Minhyun smirks and the other scoffs. 

“Yeah sure,” Jonghyun rolls his eyes and sits hard on him that Minhyun immediately groans. “did you forget the fact that I do all the _work?”_ And as if to prove his point, Jonghyun sits harder on him. 

“Jonghyun, it hurts—” Minhyun groans as he tries his best to move Jonghyun from his most sensitive part, but of course, Jonghyun is immovable unless he does it himself. 

“Admit it first then I’ll move,” Jonghyun orders and Minhyun groans. “I won’t move unless you admit it, meaning we can stay like this until 6 pm.” 

“No.” 

“Then we’ll stay like this,” Jonghyun mischievously beams at him and he groans again. 

“Sometimes I wonder how you can be the chief with that personality of yours,” Minhyun grumbles, wriggling out of Jonghyun. 

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon. After all, I’ll be your _professor._” Jonghyun beams menacingly and Minhyun groans louder. Aside from his sensitive part suffering, he knows that once he become Jonghyun’s student—it’ll be hell. 

Don’t get him wrong, Jonghyun is really the best of the best. The problem is, he is the best of the best, and Jonghyun expects that his students too will be just like him. Meaning they have to be on par with him and something less than that is unacceptable. 

Which exactly what happened to their sunbaes. Their two sunbaes were excited and can’t believe that they’ll be doing their fellowship under the legendary Chief Kim’s guidance—the two were over the moon and won’t stop gushing about it. But sadly, it only lasted for two months, as they were kicked out not only from the department, but also the hospital itself. 

“I’m sure you’ve witnessed how those two sunbaes of yours came crying out from my office,” Jonghyun states with a devilish smirk and Minhyun gulps. He knows this side of Jonghyun all too well and he also knows that once Jonghyun’s in this ‘devil Jonghyun’ mode—all hell will break loose (yes, he’s exaggerating). Jonghyun leans closer to him, fingers caressing his cheeks. 

“I wonder, would you and Seongwu, be like that too?” Minhyun doesn’t answer but gulps nervously as he sees Jonghyun’s eyes sparkled, daring him if he can take up the challenge.

“Do you think you’ll be able to last a month with me Minhyun-ah?” Jonghyun tips his chin, “or will you be gone in a week?” Instead of answering, Minhyun starts hiccuping like crazy. Jonghyun laughs at him and releases him from his torture. 

“Do you really have to do that?” Minhyun says, annoyed, as he tries to control his hiccups. Jonghyun laughs again and reaches for a bottle of water from the mini fridge. 

“Can you blame me when it’s so fun teasing you? You should have seen your face love, it was hilarious. You’re so confused on whether you should beg me to save you or you should beg me to eat you up,” Jonghyun passes him the bottle of water and he instantly chugs it down and glares at the older. 

_ “Asshat,” _

“But you love this _ asshat,_” Jonghyun states, planting a chaste kiss on his lips, “but kidding aside, I’m sure you’ve heard about how strict I am as a professor.” 

“Yeah, I also heard how you kicked my sunbaes out of the hospital unjustly too,” Minhyun grumbles, finishing the water. 

“Well, how can I not kick them out when they don’t even know what to do on a multi-trauma patient?” 

Minhyun looks at Jonghyun in confusion. What their sunbaes told them was that Jonghyun kicked them out because they got on Jonghyun’s nerves and not this. And since Jonghyun and him weren’t on good terms during that time, Minhyun bought that explanation, because after all, Jonghyun is really sensitive and temperamental that everyone minus Jonghyun’s friends avoided their too sensitive Chief. “What do you mean?” 

“Remember last month, when we had eighteen multi-trauma patients and the trauma code was activated thrice?” Minhyun shakes his head—they have multiple days like that last month. “Okay, that day when Daehwi operated on a patient without an attending with him?” 

_ Oh. _ Minhyun remembers that day—everyone was on their feet with no breaks that after that, Jonghyun along with Jisung and the department head of Trauma Surgery and General Surgery immediately decided to form a back-up trauma team in case it happens again. 

“That day, when all of us are busy, those two sunbae of yours almost killed a patient because they misdiagnosed him in panic and operated without knowing the real problem.” Jonghyun states with a heavy sigh. “So tell me Minhyun, were my standards really high, unattainable, and unjustly, if I kick two surgeons out from this hospital when I know that they can’t even do a simple diagnosis?” 

Minhyun shakes his head. What Jonghyun did is right. How can you even trust a surgeon when he doesn’t know what he’s doing?

“So just a warning, everything between us aside, you and Seongwu better prove to me how you two can be trusted without an attending surgeon with you.” Minhyun nods and Jonghyun’s sweet smile is back on his face. “Good. And,” Jonghyun pauses, “I have something to tell you…” 

“What is it?” He asks, suddenly worried about what Jonghyun’s going to tell him. Jonghyun smiles at him and takes his hand. 

“Cheol and his team are going back any time today or tomorrow…” Jonghyun smiles apologetically at him. Minhyun squeezes the other’s hand and Jonghyun smiles at him. 

“That’s good,” he answers. Minhyun’s not really worried that he’ll be working with Jonghyun’s ex; he already met him before when Cheol and Jeonghan dropped by to visit them. He didn’t feel uncomfortable at all when they talked—or maybe because he was already expecting the worst after he found out that Jonghyun’s ex was actually Cheol. So he doesn’t think there’ll be an issue unless... “Will it be hard for you if he’s in the team again?” He asks, and Jonghyun looks at him confused. “I mean, he’s your ex after all, and…” Minhyun shrugs and Jonghyun laughs, understanding what he’s trying to say. 

“Hell no, I’m actually happy that he’s back—as a friend and also as colleague because my load will lessen,” Jonghyun explains, “so you don’t need to worry about that. I’m just—I mean, I’m worried that this might make you uncomfortable...” 

Minhyun snorts, “Oh please, I’m more uncomfortable watching you and Taeyong gossiping like school girls every chance you get.” Minhyun annoyingly recalls how the last two months of him and Jonghyun dancing around each other, the latter has always been moody, that is until Lee Taeyong—who used to be a part of Jonghyun’s initial team in General Surgery—joined the team. 

Minhyun noticed how Jonghyun suddenly became livelier with Taeyong and though, he is happy that Jonghyun is somehow back to normal—minus the older avoiding him when he wants to talk—still, a part of Minhyun can’t help but be jealous. Especially when each time he sees the two, they are either laughing or whispering as if they’re in a world of their own as they do their rounds, not even noticing how Minhyun is glaring daggers at them. 

It was all thanks to Minki that his jealousy subsided. Minki explained that that’s just how the two usually are, and that the duo’s interactions with each other are quite different from back then and it has _ ‘toned down’ _ with Taeyong keeping a safe distance from Jonghyun just in case it brushes Minhyun in the wrong way—he scoffed at that—he doesn’t see the _ ‘safe distance’ _ nor the ‘_toned down’ _interactions.

~

_ “Really you don’t have to worry about a thing, just think of them as two stupid kids who know nothing but to gossip,” Minki says, sipping on his avocado Frappuccino. _

_ “Well—after telling me that they’ve ‘toned down’ now, I can’t help but be more worried especially with how they were before.” _

_ “Just imagine them literally joined in the hip that everyone in General Surgery thought they were dating until Jung Jaehyun made a scene and proclaimed that he’s Taeyong’s boyfriend in the whole department.” _

_ Wait—Minhyun heard that story before. It was years before he transferred yet everyone still talks about it; with some people sad that their favorite ship has sunk, while others are quite happy because they have a chance on one of the surgeons that’s embroidered in the infamous love triangle. _

_ “Wait, so you’re telling me that the infamous love triangle between the two surgeons and the nurse is actually Jonghyun and Taeyong?” _

_ Minki chortled and nods, “and Jaehyun too,” _

_ Minhyun groans as his imagination goes on overdrive remembering the stories that he heard on how cute and ‘lovey-dovey’ Jonghyun and Taeyong once were, that everyone can’t help but fawn over the duo and wished it was them in whoever’s place. _

_ “Stop imagining and worrying Minhyun, even back then they’re just best of friends—and all of it was just for show, because Jaehyun never man’s up, and Jonghyun—well he needs to make his admirers think that he’s dating someone.” _

_ “Should I be relieved because of that?” He grumbled. _

_ “You should, there’s really zero possibility of them dating and…” Minki ruffles his hair, “You have Jonghyun in the palm of your hand Minhyun. Though it may seem not with how he is acting, but believe me, you do.” _

_ ~ _

“So Pinky’s right, you were really jealous with Taeyong.” Jonghyun shakes his head in amusement and Minhyun flicks the other on the forehead. “C’mon Minhyun, he’s my best friend. Besides, we don’t gossip, we’re playing bets.” 

“Bets?” He asks, Jonghyun nods and pushes him on the bed. 

“Uh-huh, bets.” Jonghyun answered, kissing him at the corners of his lips. “Like how long until Sungwoon hyung explodes, when will Hyunbin hit another resuscitation trolley, how many times will Daniel get punched by a patient in a week and,” Jonghyun whispers, lips ghosting from his jaw. 

“And?” Minhyun asks breathily as he feels Jonghyun’s lips against his neck. 

“And how one day, I can no longer run away from you and you’ll make me tell you everything without even asking me, which in fact happened today.” Jonghyun whispers, placing a kiss on his collar bone. “Now that I’ve said that, I owe Taeyong a hundred dollar.” Jonghyun chuckles as he pulls Minhyun’s shirt up. 

Minhyun takes his shirt off and Jonghyun does the same with his. As soon as their shirts are off, Minhyun pulls Jonghyun to the bed and sits on top of him. 

They start of slow, Jonghyun’s tongue running over his lips, gently biting it and making him crave for something more as heat coursed through his veins. Jonghyun’s pulls him closer as his fingers snake through his hair, pulling it as their kisses became more and more, filling the room with moans.

“Tools,” Jonghyun murmurs against his lips. Minhyun breaks away from the kiss and reaches for their own magical pouch (a gift from Aron) on the side table as Jonghyun nibbles on his chest. He passes the tools to Jonghyun as he unbuttons Jonghyun’s pants.

“You know, now I appreciate Aron hyung’s—”

** _“Paging Chief Kim, your husband is waiting for you at the conference room.”_ **

“—gift. What the fuck?” Jonghyun curses, glaring at the speaker at the side of the room. Minhyun groans and zips the latter’s zipper back in place. Knowing that today, they’ll just to suffer a _ hard-on _ until they finished the surgery. 

Minhyun sighs and takes their crumpled shirt from the floor and passes one to Jonghyun. The older is still glaring at the speaker as if that would change things. 

** _“Again—Paging Chief Kim, your husband is waiting for you at the CONFERENCE ROOM.”_ **

“You’ve got to be_ kidding_ me.” Jonghyun mumbles in disbelief. Minhyun sighs and stands, pulling Jonghyun who’s still in the same position and seemed to have no plans to do anything but lie down.

“You’ve heard it Chief, they’re paging us.” 

“Can we just pass? I mean everyone’s here, I’m sure they can handle it without us—”

** _“I SAID—Paging Chief Kim, your husband is waiting for you at the CONFERENCE ROOM. Don’t make us go where you are.”_ **

“You were saying?” Minhyun raises a brow and Jonghyun glares at the speaker. 

“I swear once Cheol is here, I’ll take a one week leave,” Jonghyun states annoyed as he puts his shirt on. Minhyun laughs at the other, because he knows that Jonghyun, despite all his threats, won’t ever do that. 

“Sure Chief, Sure.” 

**[08:25]**

“See? I told you they’re having—” Seongwu blurts out as soon as Minhyun and Jonghyun get inside the conference room. Minhyun immediately smacks the other on the head stopping him from saying anything more and takes a sit next to him. 

“How many hyung?” Jonghyun asks Sungwoon, one of the anesthesiologists in their team as he takes his usual sit at the head. 

_ “Two,” _Sungwoon answers solemnly. 

“‘_Two’? _You ran the code just for two people?” Jonghyun looks at his teammates and realizes that it mostly consists of the males, minus Pinky and Chungha. “Is it a car accident?” He adds, seeing how Chungha, the head neurologist in their team is here. 

“I wish that was the case,” Taeyong says bored as he continues to play on his phone. 

Okay, something’s definitely off. Jonghyun observes as he sees how everyone is so calm, looking bored, and how Hyunbin’s even sleeping. 

“What’s this about?” Jonghyun asks with authority. “There’s no trauma patient, is there?” 

“No,” Baekho answers him cold, clearly irritated on why he’s here and it takes all of Jonghyun’s patience not to yell at everyone. He takes a deep breath and looks at his team one by one. 

“Didn’t I clearly told you guys that you shouldn’t use the trauma code as a joke?” Jonghyun tells everyone in gritted teeth. 

“Well, we wouldn’t use it this way, if it weren’t for you _ two_.” Jaehwan states looking at him and Minhyun. 

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“This is an _ intervention _ Jonghyun. An intervention for _ violating our Human Rights _ and for _ tainting the sacrality _of the on-call room,” Sungwoon states. “First witness, please take your stand,” Sungwoon announces. Jonghyun sees Seongwu stand. Jonghyun shakes his head at the audacity of his teammates.

“Okay, if this is about the on-call room, why are Pinky and Chungha here?”

“We want the _tea _ too,” Chungha gushes in excitement as Pinky giggles next to her. Jonghyun groans and walks to the door, opening it for the two brilliant and gorgeous surgeons. 

“I’m sure Minki will update you on the tea, so _ please_, leave, I’m begging you.” Jonghyun says with the most pleading look that he can manage in his very irritated state. The two surgeons sigh before standing up, passing by Minki and reminding him that they want the _ whole tea _later.

_“You,”_ Jonghyun says pointedly at Seongwu. The other looks at him innocently and points toward himself as if he wasn’t the one he was addressing. “Yes you, Seongwu. Take your seat, you’re not even allowed in the on-call room, remember?” Jonghyun says, annoyed. 

“Which is why I’m here exactly,” Seongwu says with that confident smile of his. “Should I begin?” 

“State your name and occupation,” Sungwoon orders.

“Ong Seongwu, not Gong Seongwu or Hong Seongwu, but Ong Seongwu, also known as _ McDreamy _ in the General Surgery department before Minhyun _ stole _ that title.” Minhyun snorts and Seongwu glares at the other. 

“Anyway, I’m a General Surgeon who’s been banned in the on-call room for childish reasons.”

“I banned you because you tried to lock Daniel in thrice.” Jonghyun retorts, annoyed at the accusation. 

“Is that true Kang Daniel-ssi?” Sungwoon asks the other. 

“Yes, but it’s four times now...” Daniel answers like a scared child. “He tried to lock me in again last week when Jonghyun hyung was on off.”

“See?” Jonghyun says smugly. 

“Take your sit Ong Seongwu-ssi, you’re excluded.”

“What?! I ONLY DID THAT BEC—”

“Take him away Woojin.” Sungwoon waves the other off, “Next witness.” 

“Kim Jaehwan, General Surgeon.” Jaehwan states, “It was in the wee hours of Monday, five months ago, when I first heard the weird noises in the hallway of the on-call rooms.” Jonghyun hears a bunch of dramatic gasps, who he’s sure came from Seonho and Daehwi. 

“You heard _ ‘weird noises’ _ and assumed that it was me and Minhyun?” Jonghyun asks and Jaehwan nods. “What kind of _ ‘weird noises’ _did you hear exactly?” 

“Uh… _‘doctor, please more’_ and some _guttural animal sounds?_” Jonghyun chuckles and looks at Minki and Aron, whose faces begin to turn pink. 

“Did anyone else hear these kind of weird noises?” Jonghyun asks the others and the young ones shake their heads. Thanked God. He sees Daniel raise his hand up slowly and Jonghyun nods, telling the younger to speak up.

“Seriously hyungs, you better stop with your _ weird kinks. _ You’re lucky that I was the only one sleeping in the room next to yours yesterday. Also stop with the animal sounds, it’s as if I’m sleeping next to a _ dangerous cat _ and a _ rabid dog _doing god knows what at two in the morning—you’re even whining worse than Noah hyung—Oh my god I need that out of my system.” Daniel cringes, shaking his head, making Aron and Minki blush more. 

“See? It’s not our fault. This meeting or intervention isn’t necessary and for us,” Jonghyun states, nodding towards the blushing couple. 

“Silence. Witness, please continue,” Sungwoon says. 

“Sorry for that but I’m one hundred and one percent_ sure _ that this one is you two. So anyway, fast forward to a month later, I was so tired, I just came back from two back to back surgeries and I just want to rest… I opened one of the rooms on the on-call room, and voila, I was welcomed by two half-naked people.” 

Jonghyun hears a bunch of _ ‘oh, poor boy’ _ and even some tongue-clickings and before he can even complain, Sungwoon glares at him to keep his mouth shut. 

“But who am I, a mere tired surgeon who’s busy saving lives, stop two people from having a _ lovely time, _right? So I just slept at one of the stretchers.”

“Okay, first of all, like I told you before, we were just changing—”

“Silence Kim Jonghyun-ssi. You are not allowed to speak unless I told you so.” Sungwoon tells Jonghyun as if he was a real judge. 

“I’m your _ Chief_.” 

“And I’m your _ hyung _ and _ sunbae_,” Sungwoon states with a menacing smile and he grunts. “Continue Kim Jaehwan-ssi.” 

“For me, even with the poor excuse of _ ‘we’re just changing’, _ I really don’t mind, as long as the Chief is _ happy, _I’m okay on sleeping on the stretchers—even if it’s been months already—because I know that our hard-working chief deserves this shot at happiness and love. With everything he went through, how he taught us and helped us, the things he had to sacrifice to be this amazing surgeon that he is today… Sacrificing the comfort of the soft mattress and the warm blankets in the on-call room isn’t even enough to atone for the things that our amazing Chief has done.” Jaehwan dramatically pauses, wiping an invisible tear on the corner of his eye. If only Jonghyun isn’t so irritated right now, he’ll be moved by the other’s fake speech.

“But like I said, it’s been months, and if it’s only me that’s been affected, I won’t mind it. But seeing the sight of my hardworking hoobaes sleeping on stretchers or worse the metal benches…”

“My poor hoobaes who are still so young and doing their utmost best, sleeping on a bench without even a blanket to keep them warm in this cold and chaotic world of ours, that… that I can’t take.” 

“Is this all true?” Sungwoon asks, addressing the others. 

“No.” Jonghyun and Minhyun both answer as half of the team say _‘Yes’._

“Youngins?” Sungwoon asks their hoobaes. Jonghyun watches in shock as Seonho, Jihoon, and even Woojin all look down and nod their heads. 

_ Wow. Unbelievable. Even you Woojin? _

“The on-call room is always locked hyung…” Woojin reasons, looking down. 

“We have five on-call rooms, and we only occupy the single bed room—surely it’s not all our fault that all of it was locked, right?” Jonghyun spits, glaring at the senior surgeons, especially at Aron and Minki. 

“First of all—this isn’t about us Jonghyun,” Aron states, “second, like Jonghyun—who I truly love and support—have said, we have five rooms. So let’s say we both occupied two of those at the same time, then you can’t blame me and Minki for occupying that room when we only occupy the one for two, which isn’t breaking any of the rules,” Aron states matter-of-factly. 

“And the weird noises? ” Sungwoon adds.

“We promise to keep it low and to a minimum.” Minki answers.

“Niel?” Sungwoon asks,

“I’m sharing one with Hyunbin, Jinyoung and Daehwi.” 

“Baekho?” 

“I’m banned from the on-call room too, remember?” Baekho answers sarcastically. 

“Still? Seriously Jonghyun, just let them date. It’s been a year already,” Sungwoon tells him. 

“Over my dead body.” Jonghyun says and receives a pinch on the leg from Minhyun. 

“What was that for?” He asks, brushing the pain away. 

“You said _ ‘over my dead body’ _ and you know that’s like asking for death here!” Minhyun hisses angrily. 

“Oh look at them being _ lovey-dovey _ again. How _ nice _ and _ unfair_.” Daehwi says unamused. 

“Sorry love,” Jonghyun apologizes and takes Minhyun’s hand in his, “_Unfair _ Daehwi? Weren’t you the one who promised me that you’re not going to date anyone until you finish your residency?” 

“I was _ young _ and _ stupid _ that time.”

“No, you were _ mature _ and _ smart _ that time, a complete opposite on how _immature_ and _reckless_ you’re behaving lately.” Jonghyun says like a father reprimanding his son, making Daehwi look down and feel ashamed. 

“You’re one to talk.” Baekho grumbles. 

“Yes, I'm one to talk. Say that to me when Daehwi can handle a surgery without me being _ needed_,” Jonghyun states with a bite. Reminding Baekho how they almost lost a patient a month ago for siding with Daehwi, who thought he could operate on his own without any of the senior surgeons supervising him, forgetting the fact that he’s not allowed to do that since he’s only in his second year of residency and in need of supervision. 

Baekho’s ears began to turn red, his fist clenching, completely furious at what Jonghyun had said. Sungwoon clears his throat, reminding the two that they’re in a room with the rest of the team. Sadly the two doesn’t seem to get that and instead are busy glaring at each other. 

“Hyung…” Daniel says, holding his older brother’s arm and trying to calm the latter, it doesn’t work as Baekho shakes the other off and continues to glare at Jonghyun. 

“You’re just so full of yourself, aren’t you?” Baekho says furiously glaring at Jonghyun. 

“_Boys…_” Aron warns. 

“Yes I am, because I know what I’m doing. How about you?” 

“You ass—”

“Okay! let’s go back to why we’re all here,” Sungwoon says in a loud chirpy voice, clapping his hands together, “You two, we are truly happy that you’re having the time of your life, after all the first stage of dating is the _ honeymoon _ and—” the doors of the conference room open, interrupting Sungwoon on his unneeded lecture.

Jonghyun watches as a panting Jinyoung enters, followed by the trauma team’s head nurse Jisung, who instantly clicks his tongue as he glances at all of them. 

“You’re still on this childish intervention?” Jisung asks taking a sit on Jonghyun’s left. 

“Yes and you’ve just interrupted me,” Sungwoon answers sarcastically. Jisung snorts at the anesthesiologist and clears his throat loudly to make everyone—especially the sleeping Hyunbin—pay attention to him. 

“Well, sorry for interrupting your childish intervention but we have—”

** _“Paging Chief Kim, your husband is waiting for you at the conference room.” _ **

“There. Thanks so much Yoojung-ssi,” Jisung mumbles with a chuckle. 

“Anyway, It’s a construction accident,” Jisung announces and the rest groans as the doors of the conference room open again with the rest of their team entering and taking their seats.

“How many?” Jonghyun asks, checking the team one by one, quickly dividing them into groups. 

“Five major trauma cases Jonghyun. Two blunt injuries on the chest, two cases of multi-trauma which needs a neurosurgeon, while the other has spinal trauma, and the last one is a penetrating one, which will be yours—I assume,” Jisung tells him with an apologetic smile.

Jonghyun groans and stares at the rest of their team. 

Five major trauma cases, five. Sure their team has a lot of great surgeons, but the problem is there are only five surgeons who can lead a surgery and that includes him and the fact that even though he doesn’t want to admit it—with what happened earlier—he needs Baekho in his team, especially when he’ll be operating on a penetrating trauma, which then leaves them with four head surgeons in each surgery team. 

“I don’t think we can handle five operations hyung, I can’t handle that surgery without, you know.” Jonghyun nods towards Baekho, making the latter snicker sarcastically. 

“Actually—” And before Jisung can finish, he gets interrupted again by a loud knock on the door. 

“I’m not, I mean, we’re not late, right?” Seungcheol asks, as Jeonghan and Joshua enter the room. The members of the trauma team immediately stand, welcoming the trio in bear hugs as if they don’t have five multi-trauma patients coming. 

Jonghyun glances at Minhyun and the taller smiles and nods for him to go and join the others in welcoming their friends. Jonghyun kisses Minhyun on the forehead and walks toward Cheol, giving the other a tight hug. 

“When did you arrive?” 

“Twenty minutes ago. I was looking forward to surprise you and Minhyun in the On-Call room but I was told you were having an intervention.” Cheol says, smiling at Minhyun. 

Minhyun chuckles and gives Cheol a pat on the back. Jonghyun watches as Minhyun goes where Minki, Taeyong and Jeonghan all are, and smiles when he sees Jeonghan instantly hug Minhyun as if they’ve known each other for a long time. 

“It’s a beautiful sight to see, isn’t it?” Cheol mutters, smiling. Jonghyun nods.

_ It truly is. _

“Where are the boys?” Jonghyun asks, still looking at Minhyun and the rest. He and Cheol chuckle when Jeonghan starts reprimanding Taeyong of his closeness with him out of nowhere. Jonghyun has a feeling that Minki told Jeonghan how he and Taeyong are inseparable again, making Minhyun jealous. 

“Already changing Chief, guess you have to start regrouping us again.” Cheol says beaming at Jonghyun. Jonghyun chuckles and nods, happy that their brothers are back and everything in his life is somehow going well. 

“Guess I do.” 

**[09:08]**

Ten minutes have passed since Jonghyun and Jisung started briefing the whole trauma team and yet Minhyun is still gaping at the sight in front of him. 

This isn’t his first trauma code, he had countless experiences in that ever since they moved to the trauma department, but this is the first time that he had seen this sight. 

From the original trauma team that is headed by the Jonghyun and Jisung, the head nurse, Seungcheol’s team of thirteen, the ex-general surgery team that includes him which Dr. Zhou used to lead, to the newly established trauma back up team. 

_ It’s just… wow. _

Minhyun doesn't even know how to explain it aside from it looking like a scene from a medical drama with everyone listening seriously in whatever Jonghyun and Jisung tells them while Minhyun just watches everything unfold before his eyes. And add to that is how Jonghyun is as their Chief—and though Minhyun have witnessed that countless of times, he’s still rendered speechless and in awe at how charismatic, and truly irrevocably amazing Jonghyun is—that all Minhyun can do is gawk at the amazing man before him. Truly, Minhyun couldn’t be any prouder in having Jonghyun as his partner—though at the back of his mind, he can’t help but wonder if he’s suitable for the man in front of him, is he enough? Does he deserve to be in this place?

Minhyun is sure that he is skilled and is more prowess than before, even to some of their colleagues, but that was the result in being here in the trauma department. And though he had proved that before moving here, Minhyun is sure that if it weren’t for the move, he wouldn’t be as good as he is now compared to before. 

“Now we look like a bunch of kids next to them…” Minhyun hears Seongwu mumble at his side. He hears a tired sigh on his left and sees Guanlin looking dejected. He instantly hugs the younger on the shoulder and the younger smiles at him in return. 

“Shut up oppa,” he hears Doyeon say followed by a yelp coming from Seongwu. Doyeon probably pinched him for stating the obvious and dampening the mood. 

“What! I’m just saying the truth Doyeon! Just look at them, we look like a bunch of dwarves in a room full of giants!” 

“I know oppa, but please freaking shut your mouth before you say anything that embarrasses all of us.” Doyeon deadpans, nodding towards the front where Jonghyun had started grouping them for their surgery teams. 

“Team 3, just like Team 4 will need a trauma surgeon and a neurosurgeon,” Jonghyun starts, voice full of authority. “Pinky will lead the team with Chungha our neurologist. Joshua and Sakura will assist you and Jisung hyung will lead the nurse team with Sewoon, Donghyun and Woong. Youngmin and Kenta will be your anesthesiologists.” 

Dr. Zhou and the rest of team 3 immediately stand and gather at the corner to start talking about their surgery while Jonghyun continues. 

“Team 2, Blunt Multi-trauma patient, Seungcheol will be the head surgeon along with Daniel. Minhyun and Daehwi—” a couple of surprised exclamations interrupts Jonghyun and Minhyun isn’t surprised by the reactions.

This is the first time that Jonghyun didn’t include Daehwi and him in his team. Minhyun meets Daehwi’s horrified expression and he smiles at the younger, telling him that it’ll be okay. He glances at Jonghyun, and the older nods at him, telling him to trust him. He understands why Jonghyun had to do this, especially with what happened with Daehwi, Baekho and Jonghyun earlier, being in the same team as them wouldn’t do them any good. 

Minhyun nods and Jonghyun clears his throat to shush everyone. The room instantly becomes quiet, that is, if you ignore the sarcastic scoffs coming from Baekho. 

“Do you guys really have to react that way?” Jonghyun irritatedly says, “We have five multi-trauma patients that we don’t even know if we’ll be able to save for pete’s sake,” Jonghyun adds grimly and Jisung pats the other on the shoulders. Jonghyun sighs and looks back at the board behind him where all their names are listed. “Jeonghan will be the head nurse and Jihoon and Somi will be assisting him. Aron hyung and Roa will be the anesthesiologists.”

“Let’s go hyung,” Jihoon tells Minhyun, clapping him on the shoulder. Minhyun nods and walks toward Daehwi who’s still horrified and shocked. 

“Last team, Team 1. We’ll be handling the penetrating multi-trauma patient, ” Jonghyun announces taking a seat in the chair completely exhausted. “Baekho will lead the thoracic surgery with Guanlin as his assistant, Woojin on orthopedic surgery along with Hyunbin. And Seongwu, you’ll be assisting me. Minki will be our head nurse with Doyeon, Yoojung and Jinyoung. Sungwoon hyung and Jung Chaeyeon for anesthesiology.” Jonghyun finishes, completing the five surgery teams. 

Team 1’s members immediately stand and go where their Head Surgeon is. However, instead of moving to start discussing for their surgery, Jonghyun remains seated as if he has something more to say, making the rest pause from their meetings and pay attention to him. 

Jonghyun glances at everyone and smiles at them like a worried father to his child. Minhyun knows this side of Jonghyun all too well, and he knows that right now, Jonghyun is really worried. Minhyun is proud of how Jonghyun is when it comes to his dedication for his team and their patients, but at the same time, it pains him whenever Jonghyun is like this. 

Because it only means one thing: today, they might not be able to save all. Even with all their effort, skills and determination, it still might not be enough. 

And this is the reason why Jonghyun is acting like this.

Jonghyun had his fair share of countless surgeries, countless trauma cases—even worse than this; and saw his team lose their patients in their hands, that whenever there’s a trauma code, their Chief is always worrying and thinking of others' surgery as he does his. 

Minhyun remembers that time where he saw Jonghyun consoling Nayoung after her surgery. How Jonghyun kept hugging Nayoung and telling her it's not her fault and that she did everything she could do, as Nayoung continues to cry and blame herself for not being enough to even save her patient. 

Aron pats him on the back and Minhyun nods. Minhyun sees Aron holding Jihoon’s hand, as Daniel does the same with Daehwi, while the younger holds Somi’s and does the same with Roa. 

“As all of you know, Baekho, Aron, Taeyong and I were supposed to leave early today, but we decided that we’ll leave after all the surgeries are done. We’ll be gone for three days, and I might not be able to see you and check on you guys until we get back.” Jonghyun pauses, looking at everyone, “So whatever happens, I want you to remember that you all did your best. I know all of you, trained half of you and have been with surgeries with all of you. Everyone here in this room is the _ best of the best_—I’m sure of that, and I can’t ask for anything more. So if things didn’t turn out well, please remember that it’s not your fault. I’m sure you did everything you could do, so please, don’t beat yourself up.” Jonghyun tells them sincerely. 

“That’s all. I wish you all the best, and,” Jonghyun pauses, checking the alert message on his phone. “Team 5’s patient will arrive in five minutes and the remaining four patients will follow. Go to your designated operating rooms, and head surgeons,” Jonghyun smiles at each of the teams’ head surgeons in fond and pride. 

“Please wait for your_ husbands_ at the entrance.” 

**[09:55]**

“I can’t believe that there’ll be a day wherein I’ll be in the same operation with the real _ McDreamy _ and I’m even his right-hand man! God—I can d—”

“—SEONGWU HYUNG,” Guanlin hisses at Seongwu for almost saying a taboo word. 

“Sorry, I got carried away, but anyway, can we take a picture later Mr. McDreamy? You know, for _ old times sake._” Seongwu asks flirtily. Jonghyun grunts in reply, completely focused on analyzing the patient with Woojin. 

“What is he talking about?” Sungwoon the anaesthesiologist in their team asks. 

“Same question, what are you talking about hyung?” Hyunbin asks, suddenly looking interested. 

“Jonghyunnie didn’t tell you? We were once getting to know each other.” Seongwu says, batting his eyelashes at the duo. 

“For real?” Sungwoon asks him and Jonghyun rolls his eyes in reply. “Wow, I almost forgot that you have that dark past of yours Jonghyun.” He groans and glares at Seongwu for opening this up. 

“First, it’s _ Jonghyun-ssi _ or _ Chief_, let’s keep things formal Seongwu-ssi,” He says addressing the flirty surgeon. “Second, before you all jump to conclusions, we were literally just getting to know each other and that only lasted for 5 hours. I found out that after my blind date with him, he’ll be going out on a date with Baekho the next day. Now let me focus on this patient.” He says, almost snapping. 

“Wow oppa, you are truly… I don’t even know what to say,” Doyeon says with a shake of her head. 

“In my defense, I didn’t know they were _ bffs_.” Seongwu says, unabashed of his actions.

“Okay, point taken, I’ll give you that. But can you at least have some shame—after what you did to us—and stop locking my brother in the on-call room. Please. He’s even having nightmares now,” Baekho exasperatedly says, tired of dealing with the aftermath of Seongwu’s flirty antics on Daniel. 

“Why should I, when you didn’t show up on our date?” Seongwu asks, not an ounce of shame in his voice. 

“You…” Baekho shakes his head in disbelief “You are truly… one of a kind.” 

“Yeah, I know, I heard that too from your brother.” Seongwu states proudly with a shrug. Baekho grimaces at the other. 

“You do know that that’s not what he meant, right?” 

“Then what did he—” Jonghyun zones out the bickering and focuses on the patient at hand. 

“Hyung…” Woojin says alarmed and worried, pointing at what the metal thingamajig precisely hit. Jonghyun nods and sighs, understanding what the young orthopedic surgeon meant. 

This is really going to be hard and complicated... Jonghyun takes a glance at his team, noting how they lack the needed help to perform four back to back surgeries consequently. He takes a deep breath and sighs, catching Baekho’s attention. Baekho stares at him for a second then checks on their findings. 

_ “Shit,” _ Baekho curses, understanding their situation. 

“My sentiments exactly.” Jonghyun says, given up on their fate. Baekho looks at him and Jonghyun can see the other wavering and he understands. 

They have four surgeries—four fucking surgeries in one sitting—and even if Baekho and him have done their fair share of that with different cases and complicated surgeries, this is still too much all at once. 

But what can they do? It’s too late to back out now; the patient has to be operated as soon as possible and as much as Jonghyun wants to ask for a back-up, he can’t. The other teams all have their hands full at the moment, and isn’t this why he created this line-up anyway? Because he knows that all the members in this surgery team will be able to handle it?

He glances back to the patient and takes a deep breath. 

“We can do this Baek,” Jonghyun murmurs. He sees Baekho sigh but nod in the end. “We both know that if there’s anyone that can do this, it’s us. So trust yourself.” 

“Still so full of yourself no?” Baekho mutters, though Jonghyun notices it’s not the same disparaging tone like earlier. 

“Well, I’m not Kim Jonghyun if I’m not full of myself,” He answers mockingly. He hears Baekho snort and knows in some ways, he’s forgiven. 

“What’s going on?” Sungwoon asks looking back and forth at Baekho and him. 

“Ask my bff here,” Baekho says, nodding towards Jonghyun. 

“Jong?” Minki asks looking at him with concern. He sighs and clears his throat. 

“As you can see by this…” He nods toward the metal thingamajig that’s in their patient. “It’s a penetrating trauma. The problem is it’s on the thoracic part, hitting the rib, the lungs, the heart, and the thoracic spine all at once.”

“Four… including the spine...” Yoojung, one of the nurses in the team says, ticking it off on her fingers. 

“Or five… if the spinal cord is pierced too,” Doyeon adds with a sigh. 

“For now it’s still four and let’s hope that it stays that way since we still can’t check on the spine until we finish on the heart.” Jonghyun hears a bunch of gasps and continues. “And as you can see, we’re kind of short—in people I mean. No harm intended hyung.” Jonghyun says apologetically.

“No harm taken. So, what’s the plan Chief?” Sungwoon asks. 

“Multi-task and work on shifts, that’s the plan. Minus you and Chaeyeon of course,” Jonghyun says, smiling at Chaeyeon, their resident anesthesiologist. “First, we need lots of blood, at least fifteen more bags of it and Sanggyun, please call him Yoojungie.” Yoojung nods and immediately calls for the perfusionist.

“Now, this is where it gets hard and tricky: when I said we’ll multi-task and work on shifts—I meant it. We’ll change the assigned positions that I assigned you with earlier, so listen okay?” He waits until everyone in the team nods. 

“Good. Seongwu, I take it that you’re adept to perform a bypass surgery? ” Seongwu nervously nods. 

“Great. You’ll be the first one to start and you have to finish harvesting vein grafts within forty-five minutes. Jinyoung, you will assist him.” Jinyoung nods, not a hint of nervousness on him, making Jonghyun feel proud at how much the maknae nurse grew in the span of six months.

“And as Seongwu works on the vein grafts, Baekho, Woojin and I will take the metal thingamajig out, and I want everyone,” Jonghyun looks at the team one by one. 

“and need everyone to be _calm_ and on their feet, there will be a bloodbath—literally. The patient’s vitals will surely drop once we take that thingamajig out, and I’m sure Sungwoon hyung and Chaeyeon will handle it perfectly fine, so please,” Jonghyun stares at younger ones in the team, “don’t panic. Woojin will start checking on the fractured rib with Hyunbin and Yoojung assisting him, and oh, Doyeon, you’ll switch with Minki and you’ll be in charge of blood and circulation. ” Doyeon beams at him confidently. 

“Minki and I will then work on the punctured lungs, while Baekho together with Guanlin will start on the heart. Once Seongwu is done—”

“—hope I’m not late Chief.” Sanggyun announces with a salute. 

“Just in time Sangyun. Just in time.” Jonghyun smiles at the other and continues. 

“Going back, once Seongwu is done, Sanggyun our amazing perfusionist will stop the heart, Baekho and Seongwu will suture the vein grafts, Guanlin, you’ll close up the leg , and this will continue until Baekho and Seongwu are done. Sanggyun then will restart the heart, and after that, Minki and I will take over and install the chest tubes and finish working on the lungs, you guys will take a break as we do that. When Minki and I are done, Sungwoon hyung and Chaeyeon will stabilize the patient and Baekho and Seongwu will check for complications.” 

“Wait—we’re not closing the chest?” Seongwu asks confused. 

“No. I said four operations, and that’s only three–that is if we’re lucky and the rib isn’t much damage.” 

“Wait, wait, wait.” Seongwu says alarmed “Are you saying we’re doing the thoracic spine too?”

Jonghyun sighed exasperatedly. If there’s something that he hates in times like this, it’s repeating himself. “Weren’t you listening to me?”

“I am! But how? We don’t have a neurologist Jonghyun, and even if we have Woojin, an orthopedic here, he can’t handle that all alone.” 

“He won’t work alone. Baekho, Hyunbin and Guanlin will assist him while we check the spinal cord for damages.” Jonghyun notices a glint of disapproval on Seongwu’s eyes and the latter’s snort confirms that.

“No offense Chief, I know how great of a surgeon you are, but we can’t just operate on the _ thoracic spine _even if we have Woojin with us.” 

“Hyung, we ca—”

Seongwu shakes his head at Woojin. “No offense Woojin, I know how good you are, I truly do, but this is the thoracic spine we’re talking about.”

“And?” Jonghyun raises an eyebrow at Seongwu, waiting for him to continue. 

“And I don’t think we can just _ ‘multi-task’ _ that when our team’s full of general surgeons who just finished three operations. I’m sure you’re highly capable of doing long surgeries, but how about them?” Seongwu waves towards Hyunbin, Guanlin, and Jinyoung. 

“Let’s say the bypass would only last for four hours—if we’re lucky—but we still have to check if there’s anything else that got affected, and of course the case of the fractured rib and pierced lung, which you can’t completely finish until we finish the bypass, and that would take how long? three hours if you’re quick? four hours if you’re not?”

“An hour and a half hyung, that will only take an hour and a half,” Woojin comments. 

“Then good. Let’s say we finish everything in six hours, along with that break and start with the thoracic spine. Sure Woojin, Baekho, Hyunbin and Guanlin can handle opening through the spine, _ I’m sure we’ll all make it there successfully._” Jonghyun doesn’t miss the eye roll and the sarcastic bite that Seongwu’s directly aiming at him.

“But what if there’s a _ damage _ on the spinal cord and worse it’s not just a _ measly tear, _how would you handle that then?” Seongwu asks him, tone as sharp as a scalpel. 

“Go straight to the point Seongwu, I’m getting sleepy,” Sungwoon says with a yawn, making Seongwu roll his eyes at the other. 

“My point is: the stakes are too high. Doing a bypass is already risky with the patient’s state right now, and if we push through the operation for the thoracic spine blindly not knowing the exact damage, which I must say again, is TOO RISKY—given the fact that spine surgeons don’t even do it unless it can’t be helped—is just fucking stupid without a neurologist with us. We’re basically sending the patient to—” Seongwu gestures upward “So, with all due respect _‘Chief’,_ I’m sorry but I have to stop you on that.” Seongwu finishes seriously and matter of factly.

_ “Amazing,” _Jonghyun mumbles in complete awe. Truly amazed at the surgeon in front of him. Now he understands why Pinky—despite his warning not to bring someone who would give him a headache—brought Seongwu to the team.

Seongwu isn’t someone to underestimate—even with his antics. The surgeon not only has the brains and the skills to perform surgery with _ prowess_; the guy actually knows what he’s doing and is able to adapt and digest any scenario and even comprehend what will happen next; both the best or the worse case scenarios—and is prepared for that. But what truly amazed Jonghyun isn’t just that, it's Seongwu’s guts and confidence to question him—stop him even—which sadly, hardly anyone does. 

“You’re truly one of a kind Seongwu, I’ll let you call me Jonghyun then.” He says looking at the other surgeon fondly with newfound respect. “You should be afraid of him Baek,” Jonghyun adds, grinning at the still serious Seongwu. 

“I could say the same for you,” Baekho says looking at Seongwu as if he was a cure for an incurable disease. 

“I _ love _ this attention, really I do, but can we go back to the matter at hand?” Seongwu whines and Jonghyun nods with a chuckle. 

“Aye aye captain,” Jonghyun says winking before turning and addressing his team. “We’ll start the surgery in five minutes, prepare the anesthesia hyung.” Jonghyun says beckoning for everyone to go in their places. 

_ “No!” _ Seongwu yells stopping everyone from moving. 

Jonghyun breathes out and gestures to everyone to continue. _ “Yes.” _

“Weren’t you listening to what I just said? We don’t have a _ neurologist _ Jonghyun,” Seongwu says in gripe. 

“And so?” Jonghyun smirks at Seongwu, making the other grumble curses under his breath. 

“_‘And so?’ _ Are you crazy? I told you we can’t operate without one!” Seongwu says, voice tight with irritation. Jonghyun chuckles again. 

“I’m not crazy, it’s just because we don’t need a neurologist here Seongwu.” 

“We need one Jonghyun! Or at least a _ spine specialist!_” 

“And you’re currently yelling at one Ong.” Minki says nudging Jonghyun to move and give him space. 

“What?”

“Jonghyun’s also a spine specialist, well to be honest, it’s one of his many specialties,” Minki says bored and sarcastic. Jonghyun’s sure that if he takes a look at Minki, he’ll see the other rolling his eyes at him. 

“You’re also a spine specialist hyung?” Guanlin asks and Jonghyun nods. 

“How the hell is that even possible? You’re a General Surgeon!” Seongwu yells yet again. Jonghyun clicks his tongue and glares at the other for yelling again, he hears Seongwu mumble an apology and he nods. 

“But to answer your question: Studying? Interest in different fields?” Jonghyun says with a shrug as he watches Sungwoon start working his magic with the anaesthesia. 

“That still doesn’t answer it.” Seongwu says glaring at him. Jonghyun sighs. 

“Fine, to be assigned to take charge in the Trauma department like our initial team means you have to have the ability to handle every kind of situation. And that means you have to be equipped with the skills needed to be able to handle almost all kinds of surgeries.” 

“Does that mean Baekho hyung is also a spine specialist?” Guanlin asks 

“No kiddo, that’s just Jonghyun and Cheol. Though I can also handle orthopaedic cases and the like,” Baekho says proudly. 

“And Daniel?” Seongwu asks him. 

“The same goes with Daniel, he can perform both orthopaedic and general surgery, though his main priority is orthopaedic surgery while Baekho, on the other hand is General Surgery and Cardiothoracic cases.” 

“And you? What else are you hiding in that sleeve of yours?” Seongwu asks him, not as skeptical as before, Jonghyun notices. 

“You’ll know soon enough.” Jonghyun winks and glances at Sungwoon, waiting for his signal to start. The anaesthetist gives him the okay sign and he nods and clears his throat. 

“10:20, we’ll now start the surgery on multi-trauma patient Han Joohwan…” on normal occasions, Jonghyun would always say the patient’s name himnaeseyo and ends it but this time, as he glances on his team, he knows that all of them needed it. 

“Han Joohwan-ssi and Team 1, himnaeseyo.” Jonghyun says somber, nodding for everyone to start. 

**[14:09]**

The door of operating room D opens making the members of Team 2 stop and look up at the door. 

“What is it?” Seungcheol, Team 2’s head surgeon asks as he continues operating on the patient’s chest. 

“The husband wants a _ divorce _ sunbae…” Hyunbin answers nervously with a solemn Taeyong next to him. Minhyun instantly notices the difference between the two’s demeanor. Hyunbin is out of breath and quite panicking with his scrubs covered in blood, the same goes with Taeyong but instead of being panicky like the younger, Taeyong’s expression is unreadable—which is scary. 

Okay something is definitely up, especially when these two are here and telling them about a divorce when they’re all busy with surgery and not only that, shouldn’t Hyunbin be in the operating room next to theirs? Minhyun is sure that Team 1’s surgery is still not done, especially when just five minutes ago, he saw Samuel and Seonho running with packs of blood towards operating room E. 

Minhyun looks around and notices how somber Aron, Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Daniel and Roa suddenly looked as they glance at each other, while he, Jihoon, Daehwi and Somi looked utterly confused by what Hyunbin had said. 

“How long has the husband been like that?” Cheol asked, breaking the silence. 

“Two minutes now.” Hyunbin answers in the same panicky tone. 

_ “Shit.” _Daniel curses and Aron quickly shushes the former.

“Switch places with Cheol Daehwi, you too Som, take over circulation for now and Roa please,” Aron asks not finishing his sentence as Roa, the resident anesthesiologist nods, taking Aron’s place. 

Minhyun watches Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Aron, Daniel, Hyunbin and Taeyong go to the side to have an impromptu meeting. 

“Okay, this is really weird. What’s going on?” Daehwi asks them. 

“Beats me.” Jihoon shrugs and looks at the six. “you’re the one who’s in this team longer than we are, so shouldn’t you know?”

Daehwi rolls his eyes and scoffs “just because I’m here longer than you guys are doesn’t mean that—oh shit!” Aron turns and glares at Daehwi to keep his voice down. 

“Oh my god! It’s Team 1’s patient, isn’t it?!” Daehwi exclaims making the six who are in discussion groan while the rest, especially Minhyun look at the six confusedly. 

“Well thanks so much for letting the cat out of the bag Daehwi.” Aron says sarcastically. 

“Is he dyi—”

_ “Daehwi!” _Somi’s voice echoes in the room as Daehwi repeatedly hits his mouth from almost saying a taboo word. 

“I’m sorry I got carried away.” Daehwi apologizes doing the ‘sorry sorry motion’ with his hands. 

“It’s okay ‘Hwi-yah, but let’s keep this mouth shut for now before you say anything else dangerous…” Cheol says beckoning the other five to go back to their places. 

“So, as what you’ve heard from Daehwi, Team 1’s patient is in a dire situation right now and I’m needed there,” Seungcheol announces looking at Minhyun. 

“And as you can see, we’re only halfway in our operation, though yes, we’re almost done with the hardest part and only have to suture the tubes on the heart but we still have the lungs and of course Daniel has to finish fixing the broken ribs…” 

“Get to the point babe, we don’t have much time,” Jeonghan reminds the head surgeon with the same sassy attitude as Minki. Seungcheol roll his eyes at the former. 

“I’ll get straight to the point then. Daniel will be the Head Surgeon, but Minhyun you’ll be the one to continue the surgery in my place. Taeyong will assist you and Daniel will supervise until you finish with the lungs.”

“Me?” Minhyun asks dumbfounded. 

“Yes you.” 

“But I’m still a resident—”

“You’re done with your residency and I’m sure you can handle it Minhyun-ah.” Aron says patting Minhyun on the back. 

“I—we have Daniel here, he can be the one in charge of that,” Minhyun states looking at Daniel. The latter shakes his head in disagreement 

“I can’t. While you’re operating for the blunt trauma on the lungs, I’ll start preparing for the rib too, that’s why I’m just supervising you until we start on the rib,” Daniel says apologetically. 

“But—” Cheol shakes his head cutting Minhyun before he can say anything more. 

“We don’t have much time Minhyun you’re the only person here who can do it and besides I’m sure Jonghyun put you here in my team with that in mind.” 

“It’s because…” Minhyun pauses, he doesn’t want to tell everyone how Jonghyun (despite the obvious) put him here and not in their team is because of Daehwi’s issue, “I—I think he thinks too highly of me.” Minhyun mumbles, flustered with his lie as he stares at their patient’s heart. Minhyun hears the others chuckling and he looks up, confused. “What?” 

“Despite the obvious lie,” Aron chuckled in amusement making Minhyun blush more, “Jonghyun put you here with that reason that Seungcheol have said.” Aron tells him with a smile. 

“You’re kidding, right?” Minhyun sputters and Aron shakes his head. 

“And here I thought you’ve passed the ‘getting to know each other’ phase,” Aron sighs, “Jonghyun never thinks highly of anyone unless he’s sure that you’re worthy of it and that includes us,” Aron states shaking his head in amusement. “I mean look at Daehwi, he’s here because he’s going to be a distraction in their team and I’m the only one who’s not in that team that can control him.”

Wait, what? Wasn’t he put in this team to babysit Daehwi?

“Wow. Do you really have to say it out loud hyung?” Daehwi glares at Aron, leading the older to tease the younger more. Daehwi rolls his eyes at the older and stares at him, “Anyway, I hate to admit but this oldie is right hyung, father put you here with that reason, and not because you need to babysit me like what’s running on your head.” Daehwi scoffs, annoyed that he has to say it out loud. 

“True,” Somi says next to him with a smile, “I’ve been with Jonghyun oppa’s surgeries even before you guys came here, and you're one of the few that he allows to be in charge without him assisting. So trust yourself oppa and always remember how it’s different when Jonghyun oppa doesn’t trust you like how he’s treating me and Daehwi after the incident. We’re not even allowed to do rounds without him, can you believe that?!” Somi exclaims annoyed. 

“Well, that was your fault. You know the rules that we’re not allowed to do a surgery without an attending surgeon.” Jihoon counters, siding with their Chief as always. 

“It was a life and death situation! It’s either we open her up and try and save her life or do nothing!” Daehwi yells back. 

“You should have called for an attending first Daehwi instead of diving stupidly head first into a surgery that Baekho hyung had to be responsible for when he wasn’t even involved.” 

“Wow. The amount of tea that I’ve missed,” Jeonghan muses at the confrontation between the fuming Daehwi and Jihoon. 

“Wait, hold up a second. Baekho oppa knew nothing about your surgery?!” Roa asks looking between Daehwi and Jihoon. 

“I think that’s enough for now,” Aron announces. “Cheol go, Jonghyun’s waiting for you.”

“Can you handle the kids?” Cheol asks warily looking at the still fuming Daehwi and Jihoon. 

“I’m dating Choi Minki remember?” Aron says with a smirk and Cheol chuckles and nods.

“I’ll be leaving then. Break a rib guys.” 

“God Cheol, can’t you see that it’s already broken?” Taeyong jokes and stands next to Minhyun. Taeyong smiles and nods at the other to start the surgery, Minhyun takes a deep breath and nods. 

“Scalpel, Daehwi.” 

**[17:11]**

It took them three more hours to finish the surgery on the blunt trauma patient, and by the time Minhyun finished cleaning himself up, it’s already 17:11. Their surgery lasted for eight hours, making their team fourth to finish as Jonghyun’s team the last one and is still in surgery. 

“You should go up and rest while you can hyung,” Jihoon says looking at Minhyun. “You’ll be on-call since the chief and the rest are going to be at the other department, right?” Minhyun sighs and nods. 

“I will, I just want to check up on him,” Minhyun answers, checking on the patient’s monitor. 

“He’s doing fine, much better than how you look right now to be honest.” Minhyun chuckles and scrunches the blunt nurse’s hair. 

“I had a hard time fixing this hyung,” Jihoon says, swatting Minhyun’s hand as he fixes his hair. 

“Your hair doesn’t need fixing Jihoon-ah, your too blunt attitude does,” Minhyun gently says taking a sit at the vacant bed next to their patient. 

“Someone has to say it hyung.”

“And that someone isn’t you. Do you really think that Jonghyun doesn’t know what actually happened?” Jihoon looks at him confused and Minhyun waits until Jihoon understands what he’s trying to say. 

“Then why is he putting all the blame on Baekho hyung when he knows that Baekho hyung’s not even at fault at all?” The younger asks 

“The same reason why Baekho is covering and taking responsibility for Daehwi’s actions.” 

“I don’t understand hyung.” 

“To be honest, I don’t understand either, because as the chief, Jonghyun could just say something and tell the two what they did wrong, but apparently Jonghyun wants them to learn on their own.” 

“What is he? their dad?” 

“Apparently,” Minhyun mumbles with a sigh. “You should apologize to Daehwi and Somi Jihoon-ah, what you did earlier is a little too mean, even for you.” 

“I know, hyung.” Jihoon mumbles and looks down, Minhyun looks at the other and smiles, proud that Jihoon knows that he did something wrong. 

“It’s okay Jihoon-ah, don’t forget to do that, okay?” Jihoon nods and looks up at him. “Good, I’ll go now, before my boyfriend leaves me.” Jihoon cringes at his cheesiness and waves him off. Minhyun chuckles and brushes the young nurse’s hair again. 

“Always be nice Jihoon-ah, you’ll never know.” He says, leaving the younger. 

**[20:09]**

A loud thud followed by someone cursing and movement on his side stirs Minhyun awake from his slumber. He has no idea what time it is but seeing the only form of light is coming from Jonghyun’s lamp on his side table says it’s still night time. 

“Can you keep it down? Minhyun’s sleeping,” Jonghyun says, sitting up. 

“Well god forbid I wake your sleeping boyfriend up,” Dongho disparagingly says as Minhyun hears some lock clicking. 

“Why are you even packing in my office?” Jonghyun says in a hushed but seething tone. 

“I can’t pack in the on-call room, remember?” 

“You can fucking fuck—what?” Minhyun hears someone cackling and he’s sure that it’s Aron. 

“You said _ ‘fucking fuck’_,” Aron chortles and Minhyun feels another movement on the couch as Jonghyun takes one of the pillows and throws it at Aron. “that _fucking fuck _ hurts Jonghyun.” 

“Stop laughing and making fun of my _ pronunciation _ then,” Jonghyun says throwing another pillow at Aron as the latter imitates Jonghyun’s voice, making Minhyun smile. 

_ “Kids,” _ Minhyun hears Minki mumble in that sassy tone of his. Are all of them here in Jonghyun’s office?

“And here I was thinking that they’ve grown out of their childish behavior and becoming more of the men that people think of them are, guess I was wrong,” Taeyong adds with his signature lazy voice and Minhyun can’t help but smile on the other’s statement. 

“Them becoming the men that people think they are? That’s like asking for a _ miracle, _Taeyong.” Minki answers with a scoff. Minhyun hums in agreement, not noticing that everyone heard him. “See even Minhyun agrees,” Minki states and Minhyun immediately pretends that he’s asleep. 

Jonghyun chuckles and brushes the hair out of his face. “Wake up _ Prince Charming, _ it’s too late to act like sleeping beauty now,” Jonghyun teases him and Minhyun pinches Jonghyun on the side. 

The two doesn’t notice how Aron, Minki and Taeyong look at them with fondness while Baekho on the other hand grimaces at the cringiness. 

“_Young love_, such a blissful moment,” Aron comments, pulling Minki and hugging the latter. Instead of retorting at Aron’s clingy antics like the usual, Minki places a light kiss on the older’s lips. Surprising everyone in the room. 

_ “Wow,” _Baekho mutters, stupefied at Minki’s behavior. The younger immediately throws a pillow at the other but of course, Baekho catches it. “What’s with him?” Baekho asks, still stupefied at Minki’s behavior. 

“Maybe the judgement day is coming,” Taeyong answers in his usual bored tone as he stands up. “Anyway, aren’t we going? I mean I love how these two,” Taeyong nods toward Aron and Minki “are weirdly sweet to each other, but these two,” Taeyong inclines his head towards them, “might need some privacy, and I’d rather give them that than witness them losing control.” 

Jonghyun and him immediately throw a pillow at Taeyong and the other avoids it and makes a face at them. Aron chuckles and pulls Minki to stand as he takes his bag next to him. Baekho does the same and walks out the door, cursing how his friends are like _ uncontrolled rabbits_, making Jonghyun throw another pillow again at the latter’s remark, but instead of hitting Baekho, Jonghyun hits Minki on the back. 

“Wow Jonghyun, _ good aim._” Minki scoffs, throwing the pillow hard in return, quickly running out before Jonghyun can throw another pillow at them. Aron shakes his head in amusement and follows Minki, and lastly Taeyong, who’s looking at them with a naughty smile, bids them farewell by saying ‘please just do a quickie, we’re already running late,’, before running for his life as he sees Jonghyun about to throw one of his plaques on the side table. 

“What a bunch of kids,” Jonghyun groans as he leans back on the sofa.

“Like you’re any different?” Minhyun muses placing a light kiss on Jonghyun’s lips. Jonghyun rolls his eyes, but instead of pulling him for another kiss, the older takes a white envelope on the side table and passes it to him. 

Minhyun sees it’s his and Seongwu’s fellowship application and he can’t help but beam at the other. Jonghyun sighs, reaching for his pen and stamp. 

“You better not make me regret this Minhyun-ah,” Jonghyun says, pulling out their applications and signing it. 

“Promise, I won’t.” Minhyun smiles at Jonghyun as he watches the older put back their applications in the envelope. Once Jonghyun placed the envelope on his side table, he immediately peppers the other with light kisses all over his face. Jonghyun chuckles and pulls him in for a kiss. 

“Please always be safe, that’s really all I ask for.” Jonghyun murmurs against his lips and Minhyun nods, as he sees the worry and fear in Jonghyun’s eyes. 

“Nothing will happen Jonghyun, so stop worrying, okay?” He tells the other, caressing Jonghyun’s face. Jonghyun leans into his touch and sighs. 

“I really hope so…” Jonghyun whispers, his voice tinge of worry. “I don't know what I’ll do if something happens to you Minhyun-ah,” 

“Nothing will happen Jonghyun, I promise.” He reassures the other. Jonghyun closes his eyes and nods. 

“I love you.” Minhyun whispers, planting a soft kiss on Jonghyun’s lids and the other smiles. 

“I love you too.” 


	2. TUESDAY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Relationships are hard, I know,” Seungcheol continues, going over a patient’s report, “there will always be a time wherein you’ll question yourself on why you’re in it, and there will be times wherein it’ll be too much to take that at some point, you’ll get tired of everything; I mean no kidding, I’ve been married with Hannie for years now and we still argue on what flavor of—” 
> 
> “We don’t need the details hyung.” Woojin interrupts and Jihoon and Jinyoung quickly nod as Minhyun chuckles. 
> 
> “I was about to say ice cream before you interrupted me,” Seungcheol glares at the younger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommended listening: [The Fray’s Singing Low](https://open.spotify.com/track/3EyxoXTZuR5kBZcJDRC8wm?si=43xkn5gUThe8OEuaok7I0w)
> 
> **09-28-19 edited some parts**

**[06:08 - Emergency Department]**

“HYUNGS!!! WAKE UP!!!!!” Daehwi’s screeching wakes Minhyun up from his beautiful slumber. It was at the best moment—Jonghyun and him are finally almost there, continuing from where they left off yesterday, but just like what happened yesterday, this too was left hanging. He groans. 

_ Great. Just great. He has to suffer today too. _

“I SAID WAKE UP!!! WAKE UPPPPPPPP!!!!” Daehwi screams yet again and Minhyun buries his face in Jonghyun’s pillow with a groan. He just hopes that nobody used this aside from him and Jonghyun. 

“WA—” before Daehwi can start screeching like a mermaid again, Minki throws a pillow at the young surgeon’s face. 

“We heard you little devil, so please stop the fucking screeching,” Minki snaps, glaring at the young resident as he sits up and stretches his neck at the couch across from Minhyun. Minhyun does the same and stares at Daehwi, who’s now fuming for being called a _ little devil; _ which he truly is—especially when their _ Chief _ is not around. 

“This better be a serious emergency Daehwi,” Minki warns standing up, “because God forbid what I’ll do to you, if it weren’t.”

Daehwi makes a face at Minki and Minhyun sighs.

“What’s the emergency this time Hwi?” He asks standing up and stretching his back. “Don’t tell me it’s another case of _ measles_.” Minhyun sarcastically mocks, still annoyed at how Daehwi acted impulsively yet again and turned the whole _ ED _ upside down six hours ago, as the younger kept going on and on how they have to isolate the _ ED _ from the whole hospital, thinking that the patient that was admitted was suffering from _ measles _ when it’s just an allergic reaction to seafood. Minki laughs as the younger glares at them. 

“That was really _ uncalled _ for hyung,” they both stared at Daehwi with their eyebrows raised. What the younger have said is total bullshit. “Okay fine, yes I deserve it and I may have overdiagnosed—but,”

_ “‘I may have’,” _ Minki repeats sarcastically. 

“FINE! I overdiagnosed! Happy?!” Daehwi spits, nose flaring in anger.

_ “Very,” _Minki answers, unbothered by Daehwi’s tantrums, “at least you know how to admit your mistakes now.” Minhyun chuckles as he walks towards the mini fridge in Jonghyun’s office. He takes three out of the dozens of the expensive herbal tonics that his boyfriend told them not to ever touch and passes one to Minki and Daehwi. 

Daehwi looks down on the floor and sighs. “I know that I’m not in my best these days but… I just really want to do something before it’s too late...” Daehwi murmurs, guilt and shame evident on his face. 

Minhyun breathes out. He understands what’s going on in their young feisty resident’s head but the problem is, Daehwi is yet again too confident that it led to him overdiagnosing. 

In a way, it’s good because Daehwi is doing a great job on checking their patients and is prepared for every situation but the problem is, he’s too ahead of himself and didn’t ask for a second opinion from Seongwu (the doctor in charge in the ED) and just went ahead with his findings—which is totally a wrong move. 

“We know Daehwi, trust me, _ we know._” Minhyun says, patting the younger on the back. “but still, always ask for a second opinion first rather than diving headfirst and deciding on your own. I mean, I understand what happened before and why you have to operate without an attending with you, but last night Daehwi—that’s really just plain _ stupid _ and _ reckless_.” Minhyun breathes out exasperatedly. “Can you imagine what will happen if Seongwu didn’t stop you and check on the patient first and you actually injected him an antibiotic that he doesn’t need?”

“I know hyung… I’m sorry…”

“Just don’t do it again Hwi, _ please._” Minki says tiredly, “You’re lucky that Jonghyun isn’t here and have no idea of what happened yet, or else...” Daehwi shudders and Minhyun can’t blame the younger. He doesn’t know what will happen once Jonghyun finds out—and thanked God the latter hadn’t found out yet; he’s sure that once their chief finds out, Daehwi will surely be _ suspended _ or worse, might be kicked out of the department.

Minki sighed, throwing the pack of herbal tonic in the trash can. “Anyway, what’s the emergency?” 

“Oh it’s Seongwu hyung—” and before Daehwi can finish his sentence, Minhyun’s phone rings. He sees Seongwu’s caller ID pop up on the screen and he answers immediately. 

“Hey,”

** _“Get the fuck down here immediately, we have 8 patients suffering from god-knows-what.”_ **

Seongwu hissed-ordered and hanged-up on him. “Wow—okay?” Minhyun mutters, staring at his phone. Seongwu isn’t usually this serious and for the former to drop the call just like that is kind of… _ alarming. _

Minhyun glances at Daehwi and the younger is busy typing on his phone. “What’s wrong with the patients? stomach flu? Common cold?” 

“Their lab results aren’t out yet but we’re suspecting influenza or worse, pneumonia. Though it’s really weird hyung, they’re not all related to each other but they’ve arrived one after another with the same chief complaint and symptoms.” Daehwi sighs and leans on the wall. The younger looks really worried. He glances at Minki and the other gives him the same worried look. 

“What did Seongwu say?” Minki asks, breaking the silence. 

“Same as usual, isolate them from other patients that don’t have the same symptoms and to monitor their vitals,” Daehwi shrugs. 

Minki’s phone rings this time, and the former mouths ‘Niel’ as he answers the call. He hears Minki telling the young attending surgeon to calm down and that they’ll go down now. 

“What is it?” Minhyun asks, noticing the troubled look in Minki’s face. 

Minki sighs and takes their coats from the table and passes his to him. “Two incoming multi-trauma patients, car accident.” 

Minhyun sighs. Great. Now they can’t help Seongwu. Minhyun quickly dials Seongwu’s number, but of course, the other doesn’t answer. 

“Go to the labs Daehwi and tell them we need the results now. Don’t go back to the ED until you have it with you.” Minhyun orders as he checks on the available staff on their rooster. 

“Texted Hannie and he replied. He’ll assist Seongwu and bring his babies with him.” Minki tells him and he nods. “Let’s go before our young attending starts crying.” Minki mutters as they all walk out of Jonghyun’s office. 

“God no, Baekho will make us pay if his precious younger brother even sheds a tear.” 

**[08:09 - VIP Department]**

Jonghyun clicks his tongue annoyed that no one’s picking up his call as he dials Seongwu’s number this time.

“Hyung, have you talked to Minki? I’ve been calling them but no one’s picking up.” Jonghyun asks, checking his phone if he really dialed Seongwu’s number and not a club, but then again, why would he be surprised by Seongwu’s choice of ringback tone? Ciara’s Love Sex and Magic is very Ong Seongwu after all. “Hyung?”

“I said inject _ Fentanyl _ not _ Naloxone!” _ Jonghyun raises his eyebrows, confused by Aron’s reply.

“What are you—_oh._” He stares at Aron for a few seconds and sighs, realizing that the one he was talking to is already sleeping on the sofa with his arms clutching the iPad that is still open on the file on the _ VIP patient _ that they’ll be operating on in a few hours.

Jonghyun takes the iPad away from Aron and covers him with a blanket. The older must’ve been so tired and pressured that he’s even dreaming about narcotics now.

“This is the first time that I’ve seen him like that,” Taeyong quips. “He must’ve been so pressured huh?” Jonghyun hums in reply, taking a seat on the couch next to Aron’s, as he calls Somi this time. 

“Uh-huh. After all, it’s not every day we’re operating on a member of the _ State Council, _ who is also the _ Minister of Health and Welfare _ and the _ Chairman _ of this hospital, but also his boyfriend’s _ grandfather._” Jonghyun chuckles, brushing the stray hair away from Aron’s face, as the latter mumbles more narcotics in his sleep.

“And this one too?” Taeyong nods down to Baekho whose head is lying on Taeyong’s lap. Jonghyun hears Baekho mumbling something but he can’t understand.

“What is he saying?”

“Wait,” Taeyong leans closer on Baekho, “Circular motion?” Taeyong says with his eyebrows furrowed, “put the hair first... then nose...? Is he moving to the plastic surgery department? ”

Jonghyun laughs and passes Taeyong a blanket to cover the princess. “He’s talking about his hogurt.”

_ “Hogurt?” _

“Yeah, Baekho’s yogurt, so _ Hogurt._” Jonghyun smiled fondly, happy that Baekho’s dreaming peacefully about his hogurt and not having a nightmare like Aron. 

“Ah… I’ve been away too long.” Taeyong muses as he fixes Baekho’s blanket.

“Far too long...” Jonghyun agrees, “fuck. Why are they all not answering,” Jonghyun curses as he dials Mingyu’s number this time. He’s getting worried that no one from his team is answering his calls. 

He hears Taeyong scoff and Jonghyun raises an eyebrow at the other. “What?” The younger snorts at him and gives him a look. 

“What is it? Just tell me,” Jonghyun grumbled, calling Doyeon. He hears movement in front of him and within seconds, his phone is out of his hand. “Ya—”

Taeyong clicks his tongue and places his phone on Dongho’s chest. 

“What the hell Tae?” He glares at the other. 

“I should be the one saying that Jong,” Taeyong glared at him, eyebrows raised in a condescending manner. “what the hell are you doing? You of all people should know how busy they are right now especially with you guys not being there.” 

“I know,” he sighed and leaned on the couch. He knows how busy the team are, especially when he read the countless notifications in their group chat but still, he can’t help it. He’s worried. Really damn worried. This is the first time that Aron, Baekho and him aren’t there to assist the team, and even if Seungcheol and Jisung are there to lead and assist everyone, still it worries him and add to that—his anxiety that something will happen to Minhyun while he’s not around. 

“Jisung hyung and Cheol are there, I’m sure they can handle the whole ED without you guys,” Taeyong starts, voice soft to assure him that he doesn’t need to worry. “and even if they’re busy, you have Jaehwan, Pinky, Minki, Jeonghan and Sungwoon hyung—”

“Are you sure about Sungwoon hyung though?” Jonghyun chuckled. He knows how their head anesthesiologist is, and knowing how the older is swarmed with all of the team’s patients and the patients they’ve operated on yesterday, it’s only a couple more hours before the other goes into a breakdown and walks out. 

“Well, we have Jisung hyung to keep him in place.” 

“True,” He answers tiredly closing his eyes. He hears Taeyong sigh loudly, understanding that his plans of assuring him didn’t work and Jonghyun lets out an exasperated sigh. He knows that Taeyong will soon start his ‘ted talks’ on him, that he doesn’t need and want right now. “I don’t want to hear it Taeyong.” 

“And do you think I care?” Taeyong scoffed. Jonghyun groans and massages his temple. “You’re acting like an overprotective mother hen Jonghyun. You kept calling and calling them, even making the younger ones watch over him and report to you! If you’re just going to be like this, then why the hell did you approve Minhyun’s fellowship?” 

“You know why,” He grumbled. As the chief of the Trauma department, he doesn’t have any right to disapprove Minhyun’s application—even when he wants to in every way. And to be honest, what Minhyun did yesterday was pointless—yes, he may have delayed approving their applications (in hopes that Minhyun will back out if he ignored it for another week or two) but sooner or later he has to approve it—which he had to do last night. He lets out another exhausted sigh. 

“I’m not asking you about your decision as the _chief, _ god knows you don’t have any reason to _ disapprove _ of it,” Taeyong sarcastically says. Jonghyun doesn’t have to look at his friend to know the disapproving look that the nurse is aiming at him. “I’m asking you as _ you. _If you’re going to be like this then why didn’t you just talk him out of it?”

_ “Because I can’t do that and this is the only thing that I can do!” _He spits bitterly, not noticing that he woke Aron and Baekho up from their slumber as he starts pacing in the room.

He hates why he’s feeling this way, that instead of being happy and supportive of Minhyun—he’s a complete mess. Agitated every freaking minute, anxious that something will happen while he’s away and that no matter what he does—he’ll be too late.

That he won’t be able to save Minhyun. 

Images of Minhyun bloodied and lifeless on a stretcher haunts his thoughts. Jonghyun can feel his hand shaking again as sees himself trying to bring Minhyun back to life—but just like the countless times he dreamed of this, just like the countless times his mind decided to haunt him with vivid images of this scenario—_he’s too late. _ And all he can do is stare at his shaking hands with Minhyun’s blood on it as the latter turns lifeless and cold by the second.

_ “Jonghyun-ah,” _ Aron’s gentle voice brings him back to reality. Jonghyun didn’t even notice that the older is in front of him and holding onto his shaking hands.

“Hyung—” He says in a panic, removing his hands away from Aron’s hold. He doesn’t want them to find out about this—it’s already enough that Taeyong knows—but Aron and Baekho? _ No. _He doesn’t need more of his friends worrying for him every time he goes into episodes like this. 

_ “Hyung, please, let go.” _He begs in panic but the older holds his hand in place. His eyes dart up to Aron, meeting the older’s eyes. Aron’s looking at him like a father worried for his son, a gentle smile tugged at his lips as if not to scare him away and at the same time, his face is etched with worry. 

_ “You knew,” _ that was all Jonghyun can say as he watch Aron nod and softly massage his hand. The latter smiles at him. 

“We won’t be your friends if we don’t Jong, we all know.” Aron answers, moving to his other hand. “and I know this isn’t much of an assurance because we’re not the ones in your shoes, but nothing will happen to him Jonghyun,” Aron says, voice gentle and soothing, helping him to relax. “and even if something does ever happen, we will be there, just like the last time.” Jonghyun nods as he stares at their hands. The tremor had now stopped. “There, feeling a little bit better?” Aron asks him. 

Jonghyun nods. He feels a not so gentle pat on his shoulders and he doesn’t need to look back to know it’s Baekho. 

“Aron hyung’s right,” Baekho says, voice still tinge with sleep, “If it does ever happen, we’re here Jonghyun. We’ll always be here, so you don’t need to worry about anything at all.” The other adds with the most gentle voice he can muster. 

Jonghyun nods. Though his anxiety is still there, but knowing that his friends will be here, he feels his worries ease up a bit, that if worst comes to worst and his fear will truly happen—they’ll be there.

“How about you Tae? You’re not going to say anything?” Baekho jokes, trying to lighten the mood. 

“Actually, I do.” Taeyong smirks and shows them Jonghyun’s phone. Jonghyun’s sees Minhyun’s picture along with his _ Caller ID _ blinking on his phone screen.

“_My Universe-ssi _ is calling chief, don’t keep him waiting,” Taeyong teases with a playful but fond smile and Jonghyun chuckles, reaching for his phone from the other’s hand. 

He sees Aron and Taeyong smile warmly at him as Baekho rolls his eyes, mumbling: _ that’s the cringiest nickname he had ever heard in his thirty-four years of life, _ making Aron and Taeyong tease the latter that he’s not any better with his nickname for Daehwi.

“Hey…” Jonghyun answers the call as he walks out of the room. 

** _“‘Hey’? Really chief? After calling everyone non-stop, you’re greeting me with a lame ‘hey’?”_ ** He hears Minhyun chuckle tiredly on the line. Jonghyun smiles and leans on the wall. 

“Well…” 

** _“Well?” _ **Minhyun teasingly asks, and as if the other is right in front of him, Jonghyun beams, imagining the way Minhyun’s lips are upturned into a cocky smile, eyes crinkling as he stares at him knowingly. 

“Well, I _miss _you,” He answers wishing that he can touch Minhyun’s cheek, wishing that the other is in front of him and that he can hug him right now. “I miss you so much and it’s only been twelve hours since I didn’t see you.” 

He hears another chuckle from the other along with Sungwoon cursing on how tired he is and how he just wants to quit.

** _“I miss you too and I miss you every minute,”_ **

“Really?”

** _“Yes. Really,” _ **

”Even when I’m _ suffocating _ you?” He asks teasingly, remembering the screaming text messages he received from Cheol forty-five minutes ago on how he should stop being an _ ‘overprotective suffocating asshat of a boyfriend’ _ and just let Minhyun breath without everyone watching and overreacting at his every move. He hears Minhyun laugh. 

** _“Even when you are,”_ **

He’s about to tell Minhyun that he’s sorry for being too much and that he’ll be there in five minutes to see him and maybe steal a few kisses but he sees the team that they’ll be working with on the surgery walking towards him. Jonghyun sighs and Minhyun catches it. 

** _“Guess it’s time huh?” _ ** Minhyun asks him and he sighs in reply. ** _ “Hey, it’s okay, I’ll just see you when you’re done,” _ **

“Yeah,” He answers. The surgery team that will work with them bows at him and he bows back as the team goes inside the room. “I’ll see you then, I’ll call you once we’re done.”

** _“Okay, and Jonghyun?”_ **Jonghyunhums in reply as he enters the room. ** _“I love you.” _ **

Jonghyun chuckles, making Aron, Baekho, Taeyong and the rest of the team look at him. Jonghyun shakes his head and beckons everyone to go on their seats at the table as he takes his seat at the head. 

_ “I love you too,” _ He answers, _ “more than you can even imagine.” _ He sees Aron and Taeyong holler and slap each other on the shoulders while Baekho looks at him in disgust. And the team that they’ll be working with? Let’s just say they’re all looking at him in utter shock. They haven’t seen this side of him after all, and all they know about him is the _ stern _ and _ cold-hearted _ image that he has thanks to the two fellow that he kicked out of the hospital months ago. 

He hangs up on Minhyun and places his phone on the table. He greets the other team with a smile and the members of the team either greet him in return by looking anywhere but him, blush, or in case of Byungchan—one of the nurses from other team—replies with an energetic _ ‘Hello Chief!’. _

Jonghyun chuckles at the cute energetic nurse and nods for Taeyong to prepare the presentation. Taeyong scoffs, annoyed that he’s being ordered but takes the remote from the table anyway. Jonghyun smirks at the other, but of course Taeyong’s response to him is a wicked smile as he throws remote on him.

He really should get someone like Byungchan in his team instead of a bunch of _ sassy _nurses like Taeyong and Minki. He hears some muffled laughter from the others and a loud cackle coming from Aron.

“Should we start this pre-surgery meeting?” He asks, clearing his throat. The rest of the team answers a _ yes, _ while Baekho as usual, with his blunt attitude answers with a bored _ finally. _Jonghyun rolls his eyes and clicks the remote to start the presentation. 

“As you can see here,” he points on the patient's heart, “The patient has been diagnosed with adult congenital heart disease also known as ACHD. There’s a hole in the middle of the septum, making the blood flow from one side of the atria to the other and aside from that, there’s also Atrial Septal Defect on different parts of the septum, resulting in abnormal blood return from the lungs, and lastly the heart valve defects which you can see here.” Jonghyun looks at the team one by one. Noticing how everyone looked somber, even Aron, Baekho and Taeyong. 

“Thus the only thing we can do is a Heart and Lung transplant surgery,” Jonghyun continues. He sees some of the youngsters in the team gulp nervously and he smiles at them. “Don’t worry, it’s really easy, it’s just like a bypass, though of course in this one, we’ll be replacing the damaged heart and lungs with a better one.” Jonghyun winks at the youngsters. 

“So, any questions?” He asks. The team shakes their heads. “Good, now I’ll assign everyone to their respective teams.” He says, moving to the next slide with their roles. 

“Our anaesthesia team will be headed by Aron hyung. Seungyoun and Kookheon will assist him and Gaeun, our head nurse will be in charge of blood and circulation with Yunjin assisting her.” Jonghyun pauses, waiting for the others to switch places and be seated next to each other. 

“For the lung surgery, Baekho will lead the team along with Jinhyuk. Yohan and Hangyul will be the assisting surgeons, and Yuvin and Junho, you’ll be the nurses assisting them.” Jonghyun notices Junho nod nervously before standing. The young nurse reminds him so much of a younger Somi, when she first joined their team. Jonghyun smiles as he watches Seungwoo—the other’s team head surgeon—pat the other reassuringly on the shoulders. 

“Don’t be nervous Junho-yah, you can do it,” Seungwoo whispers and the younger nods and takes his place at the far end of Baekho’s team. 

“It’s like raising your own children right?” Jonghyun asks in a low voice and a fond smile. Seungwoo smiles at him and chuckles. 

“It is,” the other answers looking at his team members fondly, “to the point that I don’t need to have my own.”

Jonghyun hums in reply, he couldn’t agree more. He really doesn’t need to have his own child because his teammates are already enough in driving him insane every waking minute (and even in his dreams) with their different personalities and crazy antics but every single one of them is so precious to him. From the older ones to the youngest—they’re his precious child and Jonghyun couldn’t ask for more. 

And as if to prove his point on how much his teammates are already enough to drive him insane—Taeyong barks at him impatiently to continue the grouping because he’s getting sleepy. Seungwoo laughs, amused at how Jonghyun—one of the most respected surgeons in the hospital and the Chief of Trauma Department—is being ordered with no tinge of respect but stops when he hears Wooseok mumble that he’ll soon go through that too. 

“Guess that makes two of us,” Jonghyun comments, noticing the exchange between the two and Seungwoo answers him with a tired sigh. “Anyway, the next team—the heart surgery,” Jonghyun pauses and winks at Byungchan who’s beaming at him energetically. 

“Taeyong will be the nurse in charge and Byungchan, you’ll assist him. I’ll be the head surgeon and Seungwoo will work with me along with Wooseok.” Jonghyun sees Byungchan pumping his fist in the air and he can’t help but chuckle at the adorable nurse. 

“And the perfusionist?” Jinhyuk, who’s been quiet the whole time asks, as they hear a knock and the sound of the door opening.

“Hope I’m not late Chief,” Sanggyun, his most-trusted perfusionist greets him with a charming smile that makes everyone fawn over him. 

“Just in time Sanggyun, as always, just in time.” He answers with a smile as Sanggyun takes his seat at the empty chair on his left.

“And with that, we’re complete.” 

**[14:25 - Emergency Department]**

The absence of the four almost went by unnoticed by the team since the Emergency Department is swarmed with patients.

From the common cases of flu to multiple vehicle collisions. Let’s just say that it was just another day wherein their hands are very full, and even with the return of Seungcheol’s team, things are still very hard when only four people are actually missing. 

“We have patients coming up—” Sungwoon’s high-pitched shriek (that Minhyun had no idea the former can do) cuts Samuel's announcement and freezes everyone in place as they all stare at Sungwoon who seemed to have gone mental. 

_ “I won’t do it! I’m quitting!” _ Sungwoon shrieks and walks out of the ED, leaving the team and the patients’ staring dumbfoundedly at the former’s back. 

Minhyun sighs and pats Samuel on back. “How many patients?”

“Just two hyung,”

“Car crash?” Minhyun asks as he checks on the available attending surgeon. 

“No hyung, just two guys who fought at an arcade with one having a busted lip and the other, a swollen hand.” 

Minhyun sighs. Thanked heavens this time they don’t need to operate. He doesn’t think he can handle another operation, when he just came from two back to back surgeries. 

“That’s good, let’s just do it by ourselves then. Woojin you’ll be in charge of the swollen hand patient, Jihoon will assist you, and you with me Jinyoung.” Minhyun orders as the other three nod. 

“I’ll wait for the patient then hyung,” Minhyun nods tiredly at Samuel as he sits on the chair. “Get some rest in the meantime hyung, I’ll call you when they’re here.” 

“Thanks Muel-ah,” Minhyun answers with a smile and the young nurse pats him on the shoulder and takes his leave. 

“Sungwoon hyung should have let Samuel finish first before walking out. Now he looks like a _ petty _ doctor walking out on two patients.” Woojin mumbles, sitting next to Minhyun. 

“Let Sungwoon hyung be. He’s been through a lot even before the four left and without Aron hyung here he has to manage surgeries after surgeries, and check up on all the patients that we operated.” Minhyun answers closing his eyes.

Minhyun understands how hard it must be for Sungwoon. He was in a _nine-hour__ surgery _ with Jonghyun’s team, and after that he has to keep a close watch over the patient that they operated on, and the four other patients that the other teams also operated on. And it doesn’t just end there, Sungwoon has to lead the _anaesthesiology team, _ prepare for every team’s surgery, and the after care after that over and over again alone until Aron comes back. So can you really blame the guy from losing the last bit of sense that he has and walks out on them?

“Yes, let’s let Sungwoon hyung be. Also pay up Woojin-ah.” Jihoon grins with his palm up as Woojin takes out his wallet with a curse. 

“Actually, rather than Woojin, we all need to pay Jonghyun hyung again. Look,” Jinyoung says, pouting towards Sungwoon who’s being dragged by Jisung on the ears towards the other side of the ED. Minhyun takes a peek and closes his eyes and chuckles. Jonghyun has won yet again with his eccentric but always on point bets. 

“How the hell did Jonghyun hyung get it right again? I mean Daniel hyung letting Seongwu hyung sleep with him may be because Daniel hyung was too tired to even deal with Seongwu hyung’s antics, but this? What is he a seer?” Jihoon exclaimed astounded. 

“Not really, he just knows too much about us and uses that to win bets.” Seungcheol states surprising the hell out of Minhyun that he almost falls on the floor if not for Seungcheol’s quick reflexes on holding him up. “Be careful, Jonghyun would kill me if something happens to you while I’m in charge.” The other teases.

”Right,” Minhyun sighed and closes his eyes.

It’s not news for Minhyun that everyone in the team knows how Jonghyun is (super) overprotective on him. He wouldn’t be surprised either if Jonghyun actually put him on the whole team’s watchlist, especially when Jonghyun had ordered the younger ones in the team to watch over him as if he’s some porcelain that’s going to break as soon as someone touched him. 

And to be honest, he’s getting tired of it. It’s only been eighteen hours since this all started, and not only it’s suffocating him that everyone treats him like some kind of patient, it also gets in the way as everyone overreacts just like what happened earlier during his surgery. 

Jihoon—like in any normal surgery—passed him a scalpel and of course, just like any other normal surgery, Minhyun takes it from the other and there, chaos ensued with Somi screeching bloody murder, stopping them as if he’ll die if he touches a scalpel.

It’s all thanks to Seungcheol’s arrival that everyone calmed down (and Jihoon and Somi didn’t fight again) but really, things like this shouldn’t even happen in the first place. 

Minhyun sighs exasperatedly and Cheol pats him on the back. An apologetic smile on his face. 

“I know it’s hard, but you know him, he wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, especially when he’s away.” 

“I know,” Minhyun answers tiredly. He understands why Jonghyun has to resort to this and though it’s annoying and suffocating (even Jonghyun knows how suffocating he had become), but if it helps ease Jonghyun from his worries—especially when Minhyun witnessed countless times how Jonghyun is when he’s having a nightmare—then so be it. 

That’s how relationships work anyways. You have to adjust, compromise, and understand where the other is coming from. 

_And Jonghyun went through a lot, so. _

“Relationships are hard, I know,” Seungcheol continues, going over a patient’s report, “there will always be a time wherein you’ll question yourself on why you’re in it, and there will be times where it’ll be too much to take that at some point, you’ll get tired of everything. I mean no kidding, I’ve been married with Hannie for years now, and we still argue on what flavor of—” 

“We don’t need the details hyung.” Woojin interrupts and Jihoon and Jinyoung quickly nod as Minhyun chuckles. 

“I was about to say ice cream before you interrupted me,” Seungcheol glares at the younger, “but going back to the point—no matter how hard it is at times, in the end there will always be a reason that’ll make you stay and make you realize that no matter what happens, you’ll be with that person. And just by watching the two of you, I think you both already found that reason.” Seungcheol says with a warm smile. 

“Yeah, we did.” Minhyun answers fondly. They really did. He doesn’t know what reason Jonghyun found in him, but for him there were countless reasons why he’s here, and it only boils down to one: _ Jonghyun. _

Nothing more, nothing less, but just _ Kim Jonghyun. _And Minhyun knows that no matter what else their relationship might face, his decision will still be the same. 

For _ better _ and for _ worse, _ he’ll _ stay. _ Because Jonghyun—despite how suffocating he is—is worth every headache. 

“Good, I’m glad.” Seungcheol beams at him in a knowing manner and Minhyun chuckles in return, slapping the other on the back. It’s weird really how Seungcheol and him are this close, especially when the former is somehow part of the reason why Jonghyun turned out this way—but then again, if it weren’t for Seungcheol, Jonghyun would still be the same surgeon who only knows to prioritize his patients. If it weren’t for Seungcheol, Jonghyun wouldn’t realize his mistakes and Minhyun wouldn’t meet him either. Though he wishes the accident didn’t have to happen—but then again, if it weren’t for that, things wouldn’t change too. 

“I hate to break this endearing moment of yours, but isn’t that Samuel?” Jihoon says, stretching his neck to check if it’s really the latter. 

“Why is he doing that though?” Jinyoung asks and Minhyun notices that Samuel’s hand keeps waving to his head and chest while his other hand remains frozen in mid-air with his index finger up as if to indicate the number one. 

“Shit,” Minhyun mutters and quickly dials Samuel’s number but it’s unattended. “Jihoon, book an operating room now.” He orders as he checks for any available neurosurgeon. 

“Woojin wake Kenta and Wonwoo, and Jinyoung call Doyeon and Somi,” Seungcheol orders, checking the two anaesthesiologists and the two nurses off the availability list. 

“All the neurologists are still in the OR.” Minhyun says frustratedly, biting his lip. 

Seungcheol clicks his tongue. “I’ll do it then, call Yujin and Guanlin to assist you,” Cheol orders quickly as he calls someone on his phone.

“But who will assist you?” Minhyun asks

“Jeonghan, who else?” Cheol winks as he gets greeted by Jeonghan’s sleepy voice. 

**[17:11 - VIP Department]**

“Annyeong,” Jonghyun greets everyone with a smile as soon as Aron, Baekho, Taeyong and him enter the operating room. 

Byungchan, their bubbly nurse immediately answers him with a perky_ ‘Annyeong haseyo Chief Kim!’,_ assisting him with his surgical gown. The rest of his team follows, with Yunjin helping Aron, Yuvin with Baekho, and Junho with Taeyong. 

Jonghyun’s team goes to their places, along with the nurses that helped them. Aron takes his place by the head of the patient as the anesthesiologist in charge with Kookheon and Seungyoun assisting him. Gaeun, the head nurse who’ll be in charge of blood and circulation in this surgery across from them with Yunjin her assistant nurse at her side. Baekho on the other hand takes his place by the lower part of the chest, with Hangyul and Junho next to him, and Jinhyuk, Yohan and Yuvin across from him. 

“All done chief!” Byunghan says, bubbly as always. Jonghyun chuckles amused at the energetic nurse as he watches Byungchan go to his place across from Woseok. 

“Hurry up, I’m getting tired of staring at your back,” Taeyong irritatedly says, already in his surgical gown. Jonghyun makes a face at the other for being impatient and walks towards their patient. 

“Chief Kim,” Han Seungwoo, the head surgeon of the other team who’ll be assisting him in this surgery, greets him with a bow. Jonghyun chuckles and shakes his head. 

“I told you to stop calling me that, I’m not your chief yet Seungwoo-yah,” Jonghyun reminds, as he winks at Sanggyun—the team’s perfusionist—who’s already in his place. Sanggyun winks back at him and Seungwoo chuckles, amused at their interaction. 

“Our teamwork is quite something, isn’t it?” Jonghyun says, ignoring the way Taeyong sarcastically snorted by his side at his way of recruiting Seungwoo’s team to join theirs. 

“It is,” the other surgeon answers with amusement, understanding what he’s trying to imply. 

“So how about accepting my offer then?” Jonghyun asks, his eyebrow raised in a teasing manner. The other surgeon chuckles.

“I’ll think about it, I have to ask our department head’s permission first.” Seungwoo answers, tilting his head sideways towards the window where the Head of the VIP Department, Dr. Lee Dong Wook sits along with the other department heads that are all here to watch the surgery. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, he already agreed,” Jonghyun answers, smiling at the other. “Right Dongwook sunbaenim?” Jonghyun asks teasingly and the VIP Head frowns at him and answers with a snappy _ ‘Yes’. _

Jonghyun winks at the VIP Head—who Jonghyun is sure is regretting his decisions. After all, the former is going to lose his _ most treasured _ surgery team. 

Jonghyun can’t help but chuckle remembering Dr. Lee Dong Wook’s reaction when he told him that he doesn’t need a payment for this surgery (which is a big sum of money), but instead, he wants Seungwoo and his team. Dr. Lee stared at him affronted and at the same time astounded with his bold request (Dr. Lee even called him a conniving sprout, but Jonghyun couldn’t care less; he learned that from them anyway); but later (much later), the VIP head eventually agreed when Jonghyun said that his surgery schedule suddenly became full when he hadn't heard anything from the other after three days of waiting (which is a total lie, he’ll operate on Minki and Jeonghan’s grandfather even if his schedule is jam-packed and Jonghyun is sure that if he doesn’t—the evil duo will see to it that he will). 

Seungwoo chuckles and nods, “then I’ll see you after our patient gets discharge Chief.” 

“I’ll see you guys then,” Jonghyun replies in delight and smiles at Seungwoo’s team. He sees Byungchan bumping Wooseok on the shoulders, and to Jonghyun’s surprise, the stoic surgeon smiles but it soon vanishes when Wooseok realizes that Jonghyun is looking at him. 

“Greet the heads Jong, don’t keep everyone waiting with your antics,” Taeyong reminds him and he turns to the audience that’s watching them. 

Jonghyun bows politely to their audience and winks at their sunbaenims who were the ones who trained Aron, Baekho and him when they’re nothing more than interns. 

Dr. Lee Seokhoon, the Head of the Anesthesiology Department smiles at them proudly along with Dr. Kwon Bo-ah, the Head of Cardiovascular Surgery, sitting next to him. 

And lastly, the one who trained him to be the surgeon that he is today, the ex-chief of Trauma Department, who’s not only the head of their department, but also the Department of General Surgery, Dr. Park Kahi. 

Dr. Park Kahi beams at him in fondness and in pride, and Jonghyun can’t help but mimic the smile on the other’s face as he feels the surge of exaltation within him, bathing himself with their sunbaes proud smiles. Jonghyun glances at Aron and Baekho, and he notices that the two are feeling the same. All three of them bursting with pride as their sunbaenims looked at them proudly and in awe. 

Jonghyun can’t help but reminisce about the past, the first time Aron, Baekho and him met fifteen years ago when they’re nothing more than medical students who at some twist of fate, have to share a table with their soggy cup ramen in their hands. 

Those were the years when no one, even themselves believed in their capability. Until after three years, when the three of them applied and got accepted at _ Seoul Medical Center _ as interns, but even after that, the journey was still full of thorns. 

Every step they took towards their dream only got harder with each passing time. It was a path filled with _ blood, sweat and tears—literally and figuratively. _

The constant struggle of learning and stress as they balance their studies with surgeries over and over again; the emotional torture when they felt that they’re not enough as they lose a patient on their hands; and lastly, the hardest and worst moment of their career, the time when they have no choice but to relive the patient’s pain by _ euthanasia. _

Jonghyun takes a deep breath. Aron and Baekho glances at him worriedly and Jonghyun shakes his head, letting the two know that it’s not like his episode earlier and the two nod, understanding what he means without even him needing say it. 

The hardest part is over.

They're here, they finally made it. After so many hardships, they finally made it and Jonghyun will do everything not to ruin that. 

Aron looks at him worriedly again, catching his line of thoughts and Jonghyun smiles at the older. 

“Thank you,” He murmurs with a tired smile to thank the two. He sees Aron nod and the smirk on Baekho’s face means that his message was delivered. 

“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome Jonghyun, now can we start?” Taeyong says irritatedly, reminding the three of them that they have a patient waiting in front of them, making them laugh in embarassment. “Of all the times that the three of you decide to feel nostalgic, you just have to decide that it’s today.” Taeyong grumbled, annoyed. Jonghyun rolls his eyes and waits for Aron’s go signal that their patient is under general anesthesia and that they can start the surgery. 

Aron gives him a thumbs up and Jonghyun clears his throat. 

“17:30, we’ll now begin the Heart and Lung transplant surgery of patient Choi Byung-ho,” Jonghyun pauses and bows respectfully to Minki and Jeonghan’s grandfather, the rest of the team follows. 

“Harabeoji, himnaeseyo.” Jonghyun finishes as he nods to everyone to start. 

“Scalpel.”

**[23:05 - Emergency Department]**

Minhyun stretches his neck as he walks toward the Emergency Department. He just finished his fourth surgery and the day didn’t even end yet. Now he understands why Jonghyun is always busy and cannot be contacted. From the last six months since he arrived in this department, this is the first time that he’s in back to back surgeries—though that is still nothing compared to Jonghyun’s; as the latter’s surgeries tend to always last longer, even when he performs fast and efficient ones. 

Minhyun sits at the vacant chair next to Seongwu, who’s assigned at the ED today. The other snorts at him and passes him a sub. 

“Your boyfriend texted me earlier and ordered me to feed you this or else he’ll feed the shredder machine my fellowship application,” Seongwu says, obviously irritated. 

Minhyun laughs and takes the sub from the other. “He’s sweet, isn’t he?” He asks as he starts unwrapping the sandwich that Jonghyun ordered and got delivered. 

“If _ sweet _ is the new meaning of _ pain in the ass, _ then yes, _ your boyfriend is fucking sweet._” 

Minhyun stares at Seongwu, surprised at the other’s words. Seongwu never speaks ill of Jonghyun—even if Jonghyun, most of the time reprimands Seongwu on his antics, but still, Seongwu always replies with either a whine or a respectful nod (when Seongwu knows that their chief is on the verge of losing his temper on him), so what’s wrong and why is Seongwu acting like this?

“Have you slept?” Minhyun asks, observing the other. He notices how unkempt Seongwu looks and how the former clearly looks like he hadn’t slept a wink at all since yesterday. 

“I haven’t,” Seongwu sighed exhaustedly, leaning closer to the monitor. 

“You need to sleep Seongwu.” Minhyun says, staring at Seongwu. The other doesn’t answer him but instead goes through the patient files. “I mean it Seongwu, you need to sleep now. I’ll call Joshua—”

“I can’t.” Seongwu answers, resolute and serious as he moves to another patient file. 

“Stop being stubborn Ong, you obviously can’t handle it anymore.”

“I can Minhyun especially when I have fourteen patients with the same chief complaint and diagnosis.”

“Fourteen? Wasn’t it nine before my surgery?” 

“It was nine, but another five arrived while you’re operating,” Seongwu explains tiredly as he goes over the files once more. Minhyun does the same and Seongwu is right. They all have the same chief complaints, diagnosis, and all their labs came out the same too.

“This is weird,” Minhyun murmurs, double checking the records.

“It is…” Seongwu replies, “I feel like I’ve been missing something so obvious or maybe I’m being paranoid.” 

“You’re not—they can’t all have the same findings Seongwu, that’s impossible.”

As Minhyun checks the patients’ records for the third time, he notices that all suffered from the same symptoms between 17:00-18:00 last night, and that all are male, eight are related with each other, while the other six are unrelated. 

“Somethings up,” Minhyun comments and Seongwu nods. “This can’t be a coincidence, they all live in the same area.” 

“Good, you’re quick on that.” Seongwu leans back in his chair and closes his eyes. “Three are fathers, five are sons of those three, four are colleagues, and two are complete strangers, but all felt the same symptoms last night after going home.” 

“And the lab results only show pneumonia? This is crazy.”

“Exactly,” Seongwu agrees, “There’s something that we’re missing here—” and before Seongwu can finish his sentence, a loud crash followed by someone screaming at the wards takes their attention. Seongwu and him immediately go where the commotion is to see that one of the patients’ screaming as he brandishes the injection in his hand as if someone would harm him. Seongwu and him immediately go towards where Woong is clutching his bloodied arm. 

“What the hell happened?” Minhyun asks, putting himself in between Woong and the patient as Seongwu checks the young nurse’s injury.

“H-he suddenly started acting up and started screaming hyung, I-I was just about to inject his meds and—” Minhyun shushes the younger nurse and moves far away from the patient who’s walking closer towards them. 

As he moves back, Minhyun notices something red coming out from the patient’s mouth. He squints, double-checking if it’s blood that he’s really seeing, as a string of red-pleghm like saliva forms at the corners of the patient’s lips. 

And like puzzle pieces, everything clicks together.

_ High fever, headache and nausea, rapidly developing pneumonia with chest pain and shortness of breath, delirium, and lastly, _ ** _hemoptysis._ **

_ “Shit,” _he curses as he tries to move the three of them away but it’s too late as he watches the patient retch in front of him, covering him in blood.

** _It’s Pneumonic plague._ **


	3. WEDNESDAY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jonghyun,” Minhyun calls his name, and as if they’re in a world of their own—as if nothing else matters—, Jonghyun pulls Minhyun close to him. His hand cupping Minhyun’s face as if it’s the first and last time he’s going to see him. Minhyun leans to his touch and smiles warmly at him. “You’re here.”
> 
> “I am,” Jonghyun whispers, closing the gap between them. Minhyun’s lips against his feels like coming home—freeing him from all the emotions that’s holding him and suffocating his being, as realization hits him that, for him, he’s willing to give up everything for Minhyun. 
> 
> That nothing else matters aside from him.
> 
> And that he’ll do everything that he can to make sure he’ll be safe. 
> 
> “I love you.” Jonghyun murmurs as he leans his head against Minhyun’s. The other nods and wipes the tears on his face. 
> 
> _“I love you too.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **TRIGGER WARNING: there are Code Blue (resuscitation) scenes and mentions of death, so please if that bothers you, don’t read.**
> 
> There are some changes in CH 1 & 2 that will explain some things in this chap, please read it first (so that it’ll make sense) before reading this 🤗 thank you ❤️
> 
> Recommended listening: [Kina Grannis’ cover of Iris ❤️](https://open.spotify.com/track/5oV8bZaShr2d01FFMHBUPq?si=7wXtJ5_MQUyu6jU3SqLf_g)

**[00:00]**

_ It’s Pneumonic plague. _

_ “Minhyun!” _ He hears Seongwu call his name in panic as the two immediately wipe his face clean of blood. Minhyun remains still, staring at the patient right in front of him. 

_ Are they too late? _

_ Did the virus spread? _

And as if to answer his question, the _ ED _ is bombarded with loud noises—from the countless continuous beeps, signaling an arrest—to people screaming and crying for help. 

Minhyun watches everything unfold in front of him. 

_ Doctors and nurses scrambling to different wards. _

_ A mother hugging her son, crying for someone to help them. _

_ Medical staff running with resuscitation trolleys. _

_ And Daehwi and Minki, who were standing just a mere seconds ago across from them, collapsing on the floor. _

Minhyun hears another loud thud and people scrambling from the other side. 

_ “Nurse Yoon!” _He hears Doyeon scream as she runs toward the one who collapsed on the floor. 

Minhyun swats Woong’s hands off of him and rushes toward the Nurses’ station. 

The virus had spread and patients infected with pneumonic plague can die within 24 hours if not treated. 

_ They don’t have much time. _

He hurriedly types a message and sends it to all the staff of the _ ED, _hoping and praying that they aren’t too late. 

**[00:11]**

“This is the first time that we’re all together in one room ever since we got back,” Cheol mused, passing the subs that Jonghyun ordered to Jisung, Nayoung, and Pinky. 

“Uh-huh, and it would probably be the last until those four get back,” Jisung, their head nurse replies exhaustedly. 

“True,” Nayoung answers with a tired sigh and Cheol couldn’t agree more. This will probably be the last time they’ll be sitting here and eating calmly (and exhaustedly) before they will be bombarded with new patients again. The ED was so jam-packed with continuous arrival of patients that they couldn’t even rest—he didn’t even get to talk to his husband today and only saw the latter when they did a surgery together. Right after that, they parted ways again as Jeonghan was yet again called to help Seongwu at the Emergency department wards. 

“So,” Pinky starts, staring at Cheol. 

“So?” 

“So, why are you back?” The other asks with her perfectly arched brow raised. Cheol glances at Jisung who’s sitting across from him and the other shakes his head subtly, telling him to lie. 

“Because we missed you?” He answered and he sees Jisung stopping himself from face-palming as Nayoung snickers next to him. 

“_How sweet, _ we _ missed _ you guys too.” Pinky answers sweetly but he knows that it’s all a facade. That scary smile of hers means he better cut the bullshit before she loses her patience. “But really, Cheol, _ why _ are you here?”

He glances at Jisung and the other inclines his head to the side. Meaning: _ no. _

_ Great. _He sighs and starts unwrapping his sandwich. 

“You lack the needed staff, that’s why.”

“Yeah sure, like Jonghyun and Jisung oppa didn’t make a back-up team for that,” Nayoung commented. 

“And add to that, will be the addition of _ Han Seungwoo’s team _ in our department,” Pinky adds, glaring at him with that _ you can fool everyone but not us _ smile of hers, “so cut the bullshit, Cheol, why the hell are you guys back? We know it’s not because we _ “lack_” the needed staff and I’m sure as hell that it's not because you missed us because you can always visit us if you do. So what is it?” 

He glances at Jisung and the other sighs before nodding. Cheol breathes out and picks on his sandwich. 

“Jonghyun…” he sighs. “He’s planning to step down.”

“He can’t step down—no one can replace him.” Pinky answered in panic and Nayoung hums in agreement. 

“We already told him that countless times, Pinky, but you know how he is...” Jisung replied bitterly, remembering how stubborn and adamant Jonghyun is. “He told us that, at some point, he’ll have to pass the baton to someone else and, in this case, it just happened earlier than expected.” 

“But why though? Why did he decide to step down so early..?” Nayoung asks, “he’s just at the peak of his career and knowing him, he wouldn’t quit this easily unless there’s something serious…” 

He meets Jisung eyes and the older looks down on his sandwich. Both of them not voicing out the reason they both knew—keeping silent even when they know they should do something to help their friend. 

_ ~ _

_ “Why are you so adamant on leaving?” He asks, voice losing control. Instead of being mad at him for being yelled at—Jonghyun chuckles and smiles at him warmly, like a father to his stubborn son. _

_ “I’m not leaving, Cheol, I’m just stepping down.” _

_ “That’s fucking the same as leaving Jong.” He bites back in retort and the other sighs. “You’ve worked hard to reach this—to the point that you gave everything up—and you’re just stepping down?!” _

_ Jisung grips his shoulder, gently telling him to calm down. He breathes out and stares back at Jonghyun. The other is looking at his hands as if the answer is all there. _

_ “Maybe I don’t want to give everything up this time, Cheol,” Jonghyun looks up and smiles wearily at him. _

_ “Bullshit,” He answers, glancing down. He notices that Jonghyun is holding his other hand tightly and that it’s trembling. _

_ And realization dawns on him—it’s not that Jonghyun wants to step down because he’s tired of sacrificing everything—it’s the other way around. _

_ Jonghyun is stepping down—because he can’t sacrifice everything. _

_ He glances up at the latter’s face and sees the panic in Jonghyun’s eyes. Jonghyun immediately hides his hands away from Seungcheol's knowing gaze. _

_ “Jong—” _

_ “My decision is final.” Jonghyun states, cold and resolute. “I’ve informed Kahi noona and she agreed,” their friend adds before standing and leaving them. He looks at Jisung who wears the same worry and panic in his face. _

_ Jisung saw it too. _

_ ~ _

“There’s no serious reason, Nayoung, Jonghyun just wants to rest and we should just let him be,” Jisung answers solemnly. 

“But still—I mean, I just don’t understand, this is so unlike him...” Nayoung murmurs in reply. Cheol looks at Pinky and sees her biting her lip as if debating between saying something or keeping mum about it. Pinky looks at him and it’s then that he knows that she knows it too. He shakes his head and she stares at him, unsure if what they’re doing is right but eventually nods. 

“Well, that’s _ Jonghyun _ for you,” he says, trying to lighten the mood. “Anyway, it’s not like he’s leaving. He’ll still be here but he just won’t be the _ chief _anymore.” 

“Like that’s any better,” Nayoung retorts with a snicker. “So who will replace him then?”

“We still don’t know yet, but we have candidates in mind.” 

“Who?” Nayoung asks, staring at him, but before he can answer, their phones vibrate aggressively announcing an alert message. 

** _CODE GREEN—THE ED IS IN CODE GREEN. EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT STAFF PLEASE HEAD TO THE ED’S CONFERENCE ROOM IMMEDIATELY._ **

_ Jeonghan. _

**[00:45]**

** _“CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. CALLING ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS, PLEASE HEAD TO CONFERENCE ROOM 1A IMMEDIATELY.”_ **

The announcement over the PA echoes all throughout the hospital, making the once-lively, just-seconds-ago-banter-filled operating room turn eerily quiet as the whole team stares at one another in shock. 

“Did I hear that correctly?” Seungyoun asks looking at everyone, “I mean, that’s a _ code green, _ right?” 

Instead of answering the resident anesthesiologist, everyone stares at Jonghyun, knowing that the department currently in lockdown is the department that he is leading. 

** _“CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. CALLING ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS, PLEASE HEAD TO CONFERENCE ROOM 1A IMMEDIATELY.”_ **

The announcement repeats again. Jonghyun looks up at the OR’s observation deck where most of the department heads are all seated. He watches their panicked faces as some begin discussing what they should do, their phones in their ears; while others are already hurriedly leaving the room. Jonghyun glances to the front, where three people remain seated amidst all of it. 

The head of the anesthesia department, Dr. Lee Seokhoon, who’s staring at Aron with his fists clenched. 

The head of cardiovascular surgery, Dr. Kwon Boa, who’s staring at Baekho’s back as she bites her lip in worry. 

And lastly, the head of general surgery and trauma department, Dr. Park Kahi, who’s staring straight at him in panic and fear. 

** _“CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. I REPEAT, CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. CALLING ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS, PLEASE HEAD TO CONFERENCE ROOM 1A IMMEDIATELY.”_ **

Jonghyun watches Dr. Park Kahi’s face contort in anguish at the announcement and all Jonghyun can do is stare—mirroring the same panic, the same fear, the same pain—knowing that the people involved are not only countless patients that he would do everything in his power to save, but also his _ team _ —his _ brothers _ and _ sisters _ that he’d been with for years; and lastly, _ Minhyun. _

He looks at their patient and instead of Minki and Jeonghan’s grandfather, he sees Minhyun. _ Lifeless and cold. _

Jonghyun moves back hurriedly in panic that he crashes into Taeyong. The other immediately holds him on the shoulders and takes the medical tools in his hand, understanding what is happening to him right now. 

“It’s not real Jonghyun, it’s not _ real,_” Taeyong whispers, holding him in place as he starts trembling again. 

_ Minhyun. _

_ His Minhyun. _

_ His lifeless Minhyun. _

_ He’s too late. _

“Baek,” Taeyong barks, telling the other to take Jonghyun’s place. Baekho nods in understanding and passes Jinhyuk the tools he is holding to move to where they are. 

“Dr. Han and Dr. Kim stand across from me please,” Taeyong instructs, making the two move so that the department heads that are still in the observation deck wouldn’t see him shaking. 

“Jonghyun,” Taeyong calls him, eyes staring straight into his, begging him to come back to reality. “_Please, Jonghyun, please._” He doesn’t answer and remains unmoving, staring at Minhyun who remains lifeless like a mannequin on the bed. 

_ “Kim Jonghyun.” _ This time, it’s Aron who’s calling his name. Aron’s voice is full of authority that Jonghyun looks away from Minhyun and stares at the other. “Get your shit together, they need _ us_.” The other reminds in the same authoritative tone and Jonghyun neither misses the tinge of pleading nor how Aron, despite his calm exterior, looks so vulnerable right now. 

_ Minki. _

It’s not only Minki and Minhyun but everyone in their team who’s at the ED. Everyone's at risk and the more time he wastes—the more time he loses in saving them. 

Jonghyun looks up at the observatory deck and meets Dr. Park Kahi’s eyes. The other nods in understanding and says something to Dr. Lee and Dr. Kwon. Jonghyun watches as the two department heads nod with Dr. Lee, standing and leaving the observation deck. 

_ “Go.” _Dr. Park Kahi mouths at him as he hears Dr. Kwon’s voice throughout the intercom telling Kookheon to switch places with Aron until Dr. Lee gets inside the operating room. 

Jonghyun glances at Baekho and the other nods, taking his place. “Baek,”

“Don’t worry, I can handle it.” The latter answers, “just make sure they’re alright.” 

“I will,” He answers unsure. Baekho sighs before turning to the team that he’ll be leading. 

“Go now, you don’t have much time.” 

**[00:54]**

** _“CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. I REPEAT, CHIEF KIM’S HUSBAND IS WEARING GREEN. CALLING ALL DEPARTMENT HEADS, PLEASE HEAD TO CONFERENCE ROOM 1A IMMEDIATELY.”_ **

Jonghyun runs through the hallways as the code echoes throughout the whole hospital. He ignores Aron’s yell for him to slow down as well as the worried and angry glances that his colleagues are giving him.

He doesn’t care nor does he give a fucking damn.

He doesn’t give a damn as he pushes one of his seniors out of his way.

He doesn’t give a damn when one of the department heads’ yells at him that what he’s doing will make him lose his position.

He doesn’t give a damn as he punches the guards for stopping him to go to where he needs to be.

_ “Enough, Jonghyun,” _ Jaehyun—who’s part of the Infection Control team—stops him before he punches another guard for getting in his way. “get in, you don’t have much time.”

Jonghyun shrugs off the guards who are holding him and takes the _ hazmat suit _ that Jaehyun is passing him.

“Brief me,” Jonghyun orders the other as he puts the protective suit on. 

“We’re suspecting pneumonic plague_—_because that’s what Minhyun reported,” the other answers passing another hazmat suit to a huffing Aron who just arrived. 

“You’re _ ‘suspecting’?” _ Jonghyun repeats furiously. If it’s really pneumonic plague like what Minhyun reported then they don’t have much time. Pneumonic plague is airborne, fatal, highly infectious, and rapidly progressing—especially if one's immune system is not strong; and knowing how the ED is always full of patients of the like, then it’s highly possible that everyone can get infected as soon as they entered the ED.

“Minhyun reported that it’s pneumonic plague and all you can tell me is that you’re fucking _ suspecting_?!”

_ “Jonghyun,” _Aron warns him, but he ignores the other and moves closer to Jaehyun. Jonghyun sees the guards and the other members of Infection Control team start moving towards him, but Jaehyun waves the others off and instead looks at him patiently. 

“You know I can’t confirm anything until all their results are out chief,” Jaehyun says, voice calm and patient. “so please be _ patient_. We’re doing our best. We don’t want to rush things and inject the wrong medicine until we’re completely sure that it really is pneumonic plague. We don’t want anything to happen to them too.” 

“And…” Jaehyun pauses, looking at him and Aron apologetically, “Four from your team are… they might be infected and one of them is at high-risk…” 

“What do you mean?” Aron asks, voice filled with panic and urgency. 

“The three are showing signs of being infected… and the last one...” Jaehyun looks at Jonghyun apologetically, “one of the suspected infected patients coughed up blood on him.” 

_ “Minhyun.” _

Jaehyun nods. 

—————

Time seemed to turn into slow motion as Jonghyun walks through the ED. 

It’s like walking through the pits of hell as Jonghyun watches everything he holds dear and swore to protect with all of his abilities turned into _ pandemonium. _

Jonghyun clenches his fist as he walks through panicked cries of help and beeping noises signaling an arrest. 

He walks through all of that with his nails digging into his skin, continuing to take excruciating steps without batting an eye, breaking every promise, every rule, of being a physician.

He bites his lip until his mouth is overpowered with the taste of iron and doesn’t falter when a guardian of a patient tugs on his sleeve begging him to save his husband’s life. 

He doesn’t pause when he sees Daniel wiping the beads of sweat on an unconscious Daehwi’s forehead nor stops when he sees Seungcheol crying over an unconscious Jeonghan. 

He doesn’t stop at all—even when he sees Aron running towards Minki, who’s lying unconscious on the bed—even as Aron cries and hugs the latter. 

_ He doesn’t stop nor does he falter. _

Instead he continues to walk until he sees a familiar hand with a red _ high-risk _ band on his wrist. 

Jonghyun clenches his fist tighter and walks faster towards the man. 

He knows how it feels like to lose someone so important. 

He almost went through that and he learned. 

Minhyun turns and looks at him in surprise. Jonghyun immediately sees the stain of blood on the latter’s scrub uniform and it feels like his insides are being twisted as fear and anger swirled around him—clawing at him, tearing him to pieces and shreds—for not being able to protect Minhyun. 

_ For being late again. _

“Jonghyun,” Minhyun calls his name, and as if they’re in a world of their own—as if nothing else matters—, Jonghyun pulls Minhyun close to him. His hand cupping Minhyun’s face as if it’s the first and last time he’s going to see him. Minhyun leans to his touch and smiles warmly at him. “You’re here.” 

“I am,” he whispers, closing the gap between them. Minhyun’s lips against his feels like coming home—freeing him from all the emotions that’s holding him and suffocating his being, as realization hits him that, for him, he’s willing to give up everything for Minhyun. 

That nothing else matters aside from him. 

And that he’ll do everything that he can to make sure he’ll be safe. 

“I love you.” Jonghyun murmurs as he leans his head against Minhyun’s. The other nods and wipes the tears on his face. 

_ “I love you too.” _

**[01:35]**

It’s been twenty minutes since this meeting had begun and it’s been twenty minutes of them wasting time as the hospital’s Board of Directors and Department Heads’ continue to argue on whether they should break the protocol and start the treatment or not. 

“We can’t inject antibiotics until we are completely sure that they’re infected with the disease!” One of the board members states furiously as one of the department heads’ retort with a_ “then should we leave them be and wait for all of them to die?!” _

Jonghyun closes his eyes and massages his temple. Both have a point—they can’t inject antibiotics until they aren’t sure but they also can't just sit and wait for the lab results. They’ve already lost five patients—three of those were the ones suspected of carrying the disease while two were patients admitted to the ED. 

“This is your fault,” Sungwoon glared at Jaehyun. “If only your team listened to Seongwu and actually did what he said instead of brushing it off, then this wouldn’t happen in the first place.” 

_ “Sungwoon.” _ Jisung warns the other and puts their mic on mute. 

“You know it’s _ true,” _Sungwoon stated. “If they only checked, this wouldn’t happen.”

“And if you checked too instead of being lax like I’ve reminded you so many times not to be then this wouldn’t happen either.” Jonghyun says through gritted teeth. 

This isn’t just Jaehyun’s team’s fault but theirs too. If his team only stopped and listened to Seongwu for once and didn’t brush it off as something so trivial then they would have noticed that it’s not just a case of pneumonia. If they did this instead of being careless and leaving everything in Seongwu’s hands—this wouldn’t happen. 

“Let’s stop all the blaming—we all know that it’s all our fault. Instead, let’s focus on the matter at hand—we have to do something before we lose more patients,” Jisung reminds them. Jonghyun groans, burying his face in his hands. 

They have _ ninety _people that are currently in the ED. 

Fifteen are guardians of the patients. 

Twenty-four are patients that are in the ED. 

Eleven of those are the ones that are highly suspected of carrying the disease. 

And add to that, the fourty medical staff; five are part of the Infection control team, and the remaining thirty-five are all part of his team. 

and three of those are _ unconscious. _

Jonghyun bites his lip as he hears another _ Code Blue _ announcement. It’s not one of his teammates, but it’s one of the highly suspected patients. 

Jonghyun sees their phone vibrate with a message, notifying them of another failed resuscitation. 

_ They’re down to eighty-nine. _

“Another failed resuscitation, are we really just going to watch and let this all unfold until we don’t have any patients left?” One of the department heads’ asks. Jonghyun clenches his fists as one of the hospital boards retort back that it can’t be helped and they should just wait for the results—thus starting the heated discussion again. 

“How long until the results come out?” Sungwoon asks Jaehyun impatiently as if the latter didn’t answer that question multiple times already. 

“Two hours and eleven minutes,” the other answers with a sigh. 

_ “Great.” _ Sungwoon answers sarcastically, massaging his temples. _ “Just fucking great.” _

They hear another _ Code Blue _ and Jonghyun grits his teeth. 

_ They have to do something. _

He taps his fingers on the table—thinking of an antibiotic that wouldn’t have much effect if the results came out negative. 

_ “Streptomycin,” _ he whispers, catching the attention of Jisung, Sungwoon, and Jaehyun, “let’s start injecting Streptomycin.” 

“That would work,” Jisung nods, “but we can’t use it on everyone—especially the ones who don’t show all symptoms yet.” Jonghyun nods in agreement. 

“We won’t use it on everyone—just the patients that are highly suspected and unconscious.” 

Sungwoon nods, “that will kill the bacterium fast.” 

“Jaehyun?” Jonghyun asks and the other sighs before nodding. “Good, unmute the mic, hyung,” he says, taking the mic in front of him as he stares at the front. 

“We’re going to inject Streptomycin on the unconscious and high-risks patients,” he states, addressing the heads and the boards in front of him. The board of directors immediately react that he can’t, while the department heads agree, with some taking his side and even arguing with some of the hospital boards. 

“Injecting that is reckless! We don’t have the results yet!” 

“We can’t just wait for the results and watch as people continue to _ die_,” he snaps, showing them a notification of another failed resuscitation. “We’re down to _ eighty-eight_, are we just going to wait until we’re down to a _ seventy? _ a _ thirty? _ Or worse _ none?!” _

“With all due respect Chief Kim—I understand where you’re coming from since I, too, went through the same during my time as the Emergency Department’s chief, but you see, this is you being blinded by personal reasons. I understand that some of your teammates are in a dire situation and you feel like you need to do something now, but this is just plain reckless and you’re putting everyone at risk.” 

“I’m not putting everyone at _ risk _ nor am I _ blinded—_I’m doing this not just because of my team, but for everyone who’s in the ED that I’m in charge of.”

“Which, I may point out that you’re not anymore,” the Vice-Chairman corrects, glaring at him—making sure that he knows the consequences of his actions the moment he left the operating room and abandoned a patient in the middle of a surgery. “You’re no longer the _Chief_, Jonghyun. The only reason why you’re there is because we can’t come in and kick you out.”

“Not because you don’t have anyone who can replace me?” Jonghyun retorts, taunting the vice-chairman. The Vice-Chairman looks at him, red-faced and livid, and Jonghyun’s lips turn up into a wicked grin. The other members of the hospital’s board started complaining on the department heads’ then—telling them that they should control him and his rude behavior but Jonghyun couldn’t care less. He meets Dr. Park Kahi’s eyes and the other stares at him unamused of his behavior but nods, giving him the approval to do it.

“I’ll inject _ Streptomycin _and that’s final.” Jonghyun stands and takes his things on the table. He hears the boards roar in disagreement but he doesn’t care and walks towards the door only to stop when he hears another announcement on the PA. 

And this time, it’s one of his team. 

** _“Code Blue: CHIEF KIM’S SON; Code Blue: CHIEF KIM’S SON.” _ **

_ Daehwi. _

**[01:59]**

“Call your brother,” Jonghyun orders, pulling Daniel off from Daehwi as he takes his place.

“Hyung,” Daniel stares at Jonghyun with his eyes glistening in panic as Jonghyun hands begin pushing hard and fast down on Daehwi’s chest.

“I said, call your brother now,” Jonghyun barks through gritted teeth. Daniel nods nervously before running. “Get the intubation set ready, inject one ampule of epinephrine every three minutes.” 

“First ampule of epinephrine has been injected,” Sungwoon announces, getting ready for the next one.

“Ambu bag,” Jonghyun huffs, pushing continuously. He sees Somi across from him placing the ambu bag on Daehwi and pressing it. 

“Jonghyun oppa,” she begs him, voice breaking with her eyes pleading him to save Daehwi. Jonghyun nods in between breaths. 

“Second ampule of epinephrine has been injected,” Sungwoon announces, throwing the bottle as he takes another one.

_ Daehwi please_—_please Daehwi please… _Jonghyun begs as he continuously pushes down, praying over and over again for Daehwi to hold on just a little longer.

“Defibrillator and intubation!” Jonghyun yells. He sees Pinky take Somi’s place as she starts inserting the endotracheal tube in Daehwi’s mouth with Somi and Donghyun assisting her.

“Intubation is done,” Pinky announces and Jonghyun nods, huffing.

“Rhythm check,”

“It’s V-Fib.” Jisung answers solemnly. 

“Defibrillator—charge to 50 joules,” Jonghyun orders as he continues to push.

_ Daehwi, please_—_fight it, you’re strong, aren't you? So please, Daehwi_—_please, I beg you. _

“Charged,” Jisung announces, passing him the defibrillator.

“Move!” he orders everyone as he puts it against Daehwi’s chest. “Rhythm check,” he says, pushing his hands against Daehwi’s chest again. 

“It’s still in V-Fib,”

“Daehwi,” he hears Baekho’s voice call the other in panic and Jonghyun grits his teeth as he pushes harder.

“Charge to 100 joules,” 

“Charged.” Jisung passes him the defibrillator. 

_ Please, Daehwi, please—I beg you, please. Just this one time listen to me, please. _He begs the young doctor as continues to push his hands down on his chest. “Rhythm check—”

“V-Fib.” 

“Charge it to 150 joules,” Jonghyun orders as he continues. Jisung passes him the defibrillator and he puts it against Daehwi’s chest. “Rhythm check,” he asks, in between puffs of air. 

“Still on V-Fib chief…” Sungwoon announces, voice giving up. 

“200 joules, charge it to 200 joules,” he orders, heaving. 

_ Please, Daehwi, please don’t give up. _

“Charged,” Jisung announces, passing him the defibrillator. He puts it against Daehwi’s chest—hoping and praying that it would work. 

“Rhythm check,” he asks, panting as his hands starts pushing again. 

“I-it’s back—it’s back, Jonghyun,” Sungwoon answers in relief and Jonghyun pauses and looks at the ECG machine. _ Everything is back in normal rhythm. _

_ Their Daehwi’s back. _

“Jong,” Baekho mumbles his name, voice tight as he holds him straight. Jonghyun nods, understanding what Baekho wants to say and holds on to other’s arms, as Baekho helps him off from Daehwi. Jonghyun leans against the wall and catches his breath and sees Minhyun standing across from them, a worried but at the same time, relieved smile on his face. Jonghyun walks closer to him and stops when they’re face to face. 

“You’ve worked hard, chief,” Minhyun murmurs, wipint the sweat off his face, “you’ve worked hard.” 

Jonghyun nods, still huffing, and leans his head against Minhyun’s shoulder. 

“I’m tired, can I rest for a few minutes?” He asks and Minhyun hums and places a light kiss on top of his head. 

“Only for a few minutes, we have patients to inject with streptomycin after all.” 

**[02:50]**

“How is he?” Jonghyun asks, taking a seat at the foot of Minki’s bed. Aron sighs and places a light kiss at the back of Minki’s hand. 

“Still unconscious but stable now... the antibiotic worked,” he replies, “Minhyun?”

Jonghyun sighs this time—Minhyun, as usual, is being stubborn and not listening to him. Instead of resting like what he should do and was ordered to do (by him), Minhyun is out there, caring for the remaining nine patients that are highly suspected of carrying the disease, because apparently (which is true) no one would understand and care for those nine more than him and Seongwu. 

“He’s fine, he’s too confident that he’ll not get infected because he never failed to miss a vaccine.” 

“Very Hwang Minhyun,” Aron chuckles as he brushes a stray hair off of Minki’s face. 

“Very Hwang Minhyun indeed.” 

“We should learn a thing or two from him,” Jonghyun sighs in agreement. Yeah, they should. Maybe if all of them were as organized and systematic as Minhyun—maybe things like this wouldn’t happen. 

“Anyway, I haven’t thanked you yet,” Aron starts, “thanks for doing this... but you do know that the stunt that you pulled with the boards is really stupid and reckless of you, right..?” Aron adds, reprimanding him. 

Jonghyun laughs tiredly. “Uh-huh, and I would do it again if I have to,” he answers, reaching for Minki’s hand. Aron stares at him, brows furrowing and unfurrowing as if he wants to say something but doesn’t know if he should say it. Jonghyun sighs. 

“What is it, hyung?”

“Jisung hyung dropped by earlier…” The older starts, and Jonghyun doesn’t need to be smart to put two and two together. He’s sure it's his decision of stepping down from his position. “He’s worried about you, Jong… I mean, we know how _ temperamental _ you are at times—but this… it’s just not you, even if you’ve decided to step down.” 

Jonghyun closes his eyes and nods. He doesn’t know what has gotten into him to do something so reckless and even taunt the vice-chairman but he knows he’ll do the same if he were in that position again. Maybe they’re right—maybe he’s really taking things too personally and he’s blinded by his emotions—but he has no choice. He has to do something and not just watch everything unfold before them helplessly. 

“I understand why you did it… If I was there, I would have probably flipped the table in anger,” Aron chuckles and Jonghyun laughs—knowing Aron, he would really do that and not waste time listening to both sides arguing as if they’re deciding on what lunch they should get. 

“But you see, Jonghyun, that’s me, and this is you. I know things are hard and I know you’ve decided to step down because of your…” Aron nods toward his hands and Jonghyun unconsciously hides it from the other, “but that can be treated—you don’t have to go to such lengths as if today is your last day. You’ve worked hard for this, sacrificed everything to reach this point, so please just think things through, okay?” Aron looks at him pleadingly and he sighs before nodding. 

He understands what Aron’s telling him and the older is right—he worked hard to reach this point and that’s why he decided to step down; because he knows that sooner or later the tremors in his hand would be uncontrollable and he doesn’t want to wait until that happens. 

He doesn’t want to risk it—he can’t afford to risk anyone’s lives especially when the tremors in his hands are unpredictable. He knows how it feels to lose someone—he almost went through that with Cheol, and even Daehwi today, he can’t risk it—he’d rather leave this hospital than risk a patient’s life. 

“Also, stop with that bullshit reason of yours that you’re tired of giving everything up,” Aron adds sarcastically, “It’s a load of crap—I don’t even understand how Cheol and Jisung hyung bought that shitty reason of yours when we all know how _ egocentric _ you are and how much you love the fame that comes along with your name.” 

Jonghyun laughs, “Isn’t that a bit too much when I’m still your chief?” 

“My apologies then, _ chief.” _ Aron laughs and he joins the other, but it soon fades as another _ Code Blue _ from one of the patients’ is announced through the speakers. 

“Daehwi… he’s okay right..?” Aron asks, face full of guilt for not helping them earlier. Jonghyun pats the older on the shoulders, telling him that it’s okay and that they understand. 

“He’s okay… he’s still unconscious but his vitals are stable, Baek’s with him.” 

“Good…” Aron breathes out in relief, “and Jeonghan..?” 

Jonghyun bites his lip and looks at Minki’s face. He wishes he could say that Jeonghan is okay—that he could tell Aron that the antibiotics are working for the latter, but it’s not the case. 

_ Jeonghan is getting worse_. 

And no matter what he and Cheol do, it just won’t work. 

“Jong?” Aron calls his attention and he smiles sadly at the older. _ “Fuck,” _the older curses in understanding and Jonghyun remains quiet. 

“Chief Kim?” Doyoung, one of Jaehyun’s teammates, calls him by the door. 

“What is it?” 

“Jaehyun is asking for you, the results are out.” Jonghyun nods, dismissing the younger and looks at Minki. He doesn’t miss the way Aron’s staring at Minki worriedly as he holds the younger’s hand tighter. 

“I’ll be back in a few, hyung,” he says, squeezing Minki’s hand before standing. Aron doesn’t answer him but instead takes Minki’s hand and places a kiss on it. 

**[03:15]**

“So?” Jonghyun asks Jaehyun, taking a seat next to Jisung. He notices that the two’s faces are both set in a hard line and looking grim. Jonghyun breathes out, understanding, and massages his temple. “Just tell me how many Jaehyun.” 

Jaehyun takes a deep breath and nods, “Nineteen patients,” Jaehyun answers, “nineteen patients are positive with pneumonic plague and the other sixty-six are all negative…” 

Jonghyun buries his hand in his hair and sighs. It’s no surprise to him that the labs came out positive—he was already sure of that as soon as he checked on the suspected patients. And though he knows he should feel grateful and relieved that only nineteen are infected—he can’t bring himself to be grateful. 

_ Nineteen. _

_ Nineteen people are infected and those nineteen people all have family and friends worriedly waiting for them to come back safe and sound. _

“Continue.” 

“The nine patients that are suspected of carrying the disease, five normal patients and two guardians…” Jaehyun answers solemnly and Jonghyun nods. He feels Jisung’s hand on his shoulders as if to keep him intact as Jaehyun tells him the final three, “and the last three are Daehwi, Minki and Jeonghan.”

“Minhyun is right after all,” Jonghyun mused, remembering Minhyun’s words that he won’t get infected. Jonghyun’s fingers raked through his hair, pulling it aggressively. “We should really learn a thing or two from him—maybe if we did, no one in the team gets hurt.” He adds bitterly. 

_ “Jonghyun,” _Jisung squeezed his shoulder, “this is not your fault—it’s no one’s fault so please,”

Jonghyun shrugs the older off, “Is it really hyung? If only I paid attention and led you guys right, do you think this will happen?” 

“You paid attention and you’re leading the team right Jonghyun—everyone knows that.” 

“Then why are three members of our team infected?” He asks like a child begging helplessly. “Why are they fucking there—lying unconscious if I did things right?” 

“Jonghyun, please—” and before Jisung can calm him down, another Code Blue announcement blares on the PA. 

** _“Code Blue: CHEONSA; Code Blue: CHEONSA.”_ **

Jonghyun clenches his fist until his nails dug into his skin. 

_ Jeonghan. _

_ This time, it’s Jeonghan. _

**[03:30]**

It’s as if he’s in a horror movie as Jonghyun watches Cheol crying over Jeonghan while everyone tries to pull the latter away. Cheol shrugs Hyunbin and Jaehwan off of him and takes the intubation set from Joshua’s hands as he continues to beg Jeonghan to wake up. 

“You can’t die on me, you can’t die on me, please don’t die, love—please—I’ll do anything—” Jonghyun hears Cheol say like a mantra. And it’s like his skin is being ripped apart as he hears every word—sinking deeper and deeper along with Cheol’s cry for Jeonghan to come back. 

“Pull him away, Hyunbin.” Nayoung orders, cold and clipped as Jaehwan takes the intubation set from Cheol’s hands. Hyunbin pulls him away; but Cheol, as always, is stubborn and shrugs Hyunbin’s hold off of him and goes towards Jeonghan who’s lying limp. “NO! You can’t! I can still save hi—”

“GET HIM OUT NOW!” Nayoung yelled. Jonghyun nods to Hyunbin, helping the younger pull Cheol out of the room. 

_ “Jonghyun—please,” _ Cheol begs him as they walk out of the room and he nods—because that’s the only thing he can do. “ _ Please, Jong, promise me please,” _Cheol begs him, looking straight into his eyes as he holds onto his shoulders. 

“Cheol.”

“_Fucking promise me Jonghyun please—you can do it right? Please,” _Cheol begs him again as he goes onto his knees. Jonghyun clenched his fist and nods. 

Standing next to Cheol and holding him in place, Jonghyun sees Jisung nodding for him to go back to the room. Jonghyun goes back inside and switches places with Nayoung at the foot of Jeonghan’s bed. He pulls it farther from the wall to monitor everything as the Code Team Leader.

“Vitals,” Jonghyun asks, waving towards Jaehwan and Joshua to go in their respective places. 

“_Heart rate 50, respiratory rate 0, BP unappreciable,” _Youngmin answered. 

“Inject one ampule of atropine,” Jonghyun orders, checking the lines that’s attached to Jeonghan. 

“One ampule atropine injected.” Youngmin announces.

“Vitals,” he asks again. Youngmin immediately responds with _ ‘no response’ _and Jonghyun curses, stepping on the stopper on Jeonghan’s bed and pulling it backwards. “Inject one ampule of epinephrine,”

“One ampule of epinephrine injected,” 

_ Jeonghan, please. Cheol’s waiting for you. You can’t leave us—please. _

“Vitals going down,” Nayoung states as the beep continues to slow down and Jonghyun immediately rushes up on Jeonghan. 

As soon as he gets on the bed, the room is engulfed in one continuous beep. 

_ Flatline. _

Everything seemed to have stopped as the team continued to stare at the Vitals Monitor. 

_ “Jeonghan,” _ Jonghyun breaths as he starts to push down—fast—not fast—push down. _ Come back, Jeonghan, please. _He prays over and over again as he continues pushing with Cheol screaming and crying outside of the room. 

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS WAITING FOR?!” Jonghyun barks, ordering everyone in the room to get their heads back together. 

“Intubation and defilibrator,” Nayoung orders, voice shaking and the team immediately scurries, pulling Jeonghan's bed farther to prepare for intubation. 

“Inject one ampule of epinephrine every three minutes,” Jonghyun orders in between breaths and Youngmin immediately nods and injects one. 

“First ampule of epinephrine injected.” 

“Rhythm check,” he orders, pushing down. 

“V-fib,” Nayoung answers as Joshua starts inserting the endotracheal tube in Jeonghan’s mouth with Doyeon assisting him. 

“Intubation is done,” Joshua announces. 

“Get ready for Defibrillation,” 

“Second ampule of epinephrine injected.” Youngmin announces. 

“Rhythm check,” 

“Still in V-fib,” Youngmin answers and Jonghyun curses as Nayoung orders for him to switch places with Jaehwan. 

“We have to switch now Jong—you’ve been doing this for eight minutes—you can’t—”

_ “No.” _Jonghyun glares at the latter and continues to push down. He feels a hand against his arm and sees Minhyun looking at him. 

“You have to go down now, Jonghyun.” Minhyun tells him gently and Jonghyun shakes his head in reply as he continues to push down hard. He can’t go down—he promised Cheol that he’ll bring Jeonghan back. “You have to go down, love, you won’t last long if you don’t.” 

“I _ can,” _he answers. 

“You won’t Jonghyun, so _ please_, don’t be stubborn. You want to save Jeonghan, right?” Minhyun pleads and Jonghyun looks at other with his chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. Jaehwan immediately goes onto Jeonghan’s bed and starts the compression as Minhyun helps Jonghyun down, holding him in balance. He stares at Minhyun in panic and the other smiles at him, squeezing his shoulders to tell him that it will be okay, that Jeonghan will come back. 

“Third ampule of epinephrine injected,” Youngmin says and Jonghyun looks at the stats, Jeonghan is still in V-Fib. 

“Charge the defibrillator in 50 joules,” he orders, switching with Nayoung as the latter takes her place again at Jeonghan’s side with Joshua assisting him. 

“Charged,” Nayoung says, passing the defilibrator to Jaehwan. 

“Move,” Jaehwan barks and Joshua and Doyeon both move away as he places the defilibrator against Jeonghan’s chest. 

“V-fib,” Jonghyun announced as he checks on the ECG, “charge to 100 joules.” Nayoung nods and it repeats again and again with Jeonghan still in V-Fib. 

“Fifth ampule of epinephrine injected,” Youngmin announced as they continue with no response coming from Jeonghan for the last 16 minutes. They’re reaching 20 minutes—and they can’t pass more than that or it might cause a serious brain damage on Jeonghan. 

“Switch places with Minhyun, Nayoung.” Jonghyun orders as he moves up toward the bed. “I’ll take over,” he says, moving up the bed and taking Jaehwan’s place in compression. “Charge defibrillator to 250 joules.” 

“Charged.” Minhyun says, passing him the defilibrator as he shocks Jeonghan. 

“Rhythm check,” he asks as he starts pushing on Jeonghan’s chest again. 

“V-fib,” Nayoung answered grimly. 

“Start Amiodarone drip,” Jonghyun orders. 

“Amiodarone drip has started,” 

“Stats,” Jonghyun asks as he continues to push down rhythmically. _ “No response,” _Nayoung answers. 

“Charge defibrillator to 300 joules,” Jonghyun orders, and Minhyun nods, passing him the defibrillator, “move.” 

He starts the compressions once again, “inject another ampule of epinephrine,” he orders, voice labored. 

“Seventh ampule of epinephrine injected,” Youngmin tells him, and he nods, continuing. 

“Charge defibrillator to 350 joules,” He barked, and Minhyun immediately raises it to 350.

“Charged,” Minhyun announces passing him the defibrillator. 

“Move,” he yelled as he shocks Jeonghan, wishing and praying that this time it would work as he starts the compressions again. 

_ Jeonghan, please—you need to come back. _

He pleads, as he continues pushing other’s chest as sweat trickle from his face down to his neck. 

_ Please, Jeonghan—please. _

He pleads with every push in his power, Jonghyun’s chest rising and falling along with every movement. 

_ Jeonghan, please. _

He pleads and he pounds his fist on Jeonghan over and over again, begging the other to come back—that he can’t leave them. 

“Jeonghan,_ please,_” He gasps between breaths, “please—I _ beg _ you.” 

And just like the angel that he is, Jeonghan did—filling the room with a faint sound of beeps of his heart beating again. 

“Heartbeat is back,” Nayoung announces as if she can’t believe it, “heartbeat is back.” 

“Vitals,” Jonghyun huffs, staring at Jeonghan. 

“Going up back to normal; Heart Rate 90s, Respiratory Rate 16, BP 80/50,” Minhyun tells him. 

“Call Cheol,” he orders catching his breath, “call Cheol now.” He hears someone scrambling and he looks back, listening to the sound of stabilizing beats through the monitor. 

_ “Thank you.” _ He murmurs, brushing the stray hair off Jeonghan’s face, _ “thank you for coming back.” _

**[05:11]**

Jonghyun stares at his hands as if it’s something foreign and not a part of him. He doesn’t know what to feel—should he be happy that it saved someone? Or should he feel guilty, for not being able to save all? 

“Here,” Minhyun passes him an uncapped bottle of water and sits down next to him on the floor. He thanks the taller and chugs it down. 

“Jeonghan’s stable now and Cheol administered antibiotics,” Minhyun tells him and he nods, closing his eyes and leans against the wall, zoning out from all the chaos and noise from the ED. 

The lock down has been lifted off, and though they still have nineteen infected patients to monitor and the ED is still closed—still, it’s better. 

Uninfected patients can now go home, and the antibiotics are working on the infected ones; he just hopes that everything will continue like this and he won’t get to hear another excruciating announcement of Code Blue. 

_ “Penny for your thoughts?” _Minhyun teases, bumping him on the shoulders. Jonghyun smiles and leans on the other’s shoulder as they watch Hyunbin bumping against a resus trolley. “That must’ve hurt,” Minhyun comments. 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s used to it.” he chuckled. One of the infected patients passes by them with Guanlin assisting him and Jonghyun smiles as he sees the patient looking better. They continue to watch as the patient goes inside the room of one of the infected boys, and his smile fades. Remembering the two boys whom they weren’t able to save and the seven more patients they lost because he wasn’t enough. 

“It’s not your fault love,” Minhyun whispers, “you did your best.” 

“Did I really?” He asks, more to himself. He stares at his hands—and he knows that he didn’t. Not as much as he did with Minhyun, Minki, Daehwi, and Jeonghan. 

“You did.” Minhyun told him, voice full of certainty. 

“I doubt it,” he answered, he sees his hands start shaking again and he immediately hides it from Minhyun. Minhyun sighs next to him and pulls him to face him. 

“You did your best, Jonghyun—you did everything you could do. So please—stop blaming yourself and accept the fact that you can’t save everyone—even if you’re the best of the best—you just can’t save all, including _ me._” Minhyun tells him, eyes boring into his, pleading him to understand that everything is not in his control. 

“But I can’t let anything happen to you,” he whispers with his voice shaking. “I won’t ever let anything happen to you.” Minhyun’s expression softens and the other strokes his cheek. 

“I know,” Minhyun gave him a half-smile, “but you’re not a _ God, _Jonghyun, you’re only human too.” Minhyun pauses and looks at his hands. “And the earlier you accept that, the faster you’ll get better.” Minhyun tells him, squeezing his hands. 

He stares at his hands and it’s fascinating how it stopped trembling as soon as Minhyun held them in his. 

“Why am I not surprised that you knew?” He asks, still staring at it—smiling as Minhyun intertwines their hands and fascinated how they perfectly fit each other. 

“I’m with you 24/7, Jonghyun and add to that the fact that I’m basically living in your place—so how the hell wouldn’t I notice?” 

“Point-taken,” he chuckles and Minhyun rolls his eyes and tips his chin up. 

“So please, stop the blaming and relieve yourself from all this anxiety, okay?” Minhyun tells him and he sighs, “I love you as much as you love me, and it pains me everytime I see you like this, so please, Jonghyun, please promise me.” 

“You know doctors shouldn’t make promises, Minhyun.” 

“I’m not asking you as a doctor, I’m asking you as you.” 

Jonghyun sighs, “I promise.” Minhyun smiles at him and pulls him into his arms. 

“Good,” the other murmurs, placing a kiss on his forehead. They hear the door of the patient room opening and they both smile as they see the young boy conscious and in his father’s arms. 

“The worst is over now,_ chief, _you’ve worked hard.” 

** _EPILOGUE_ **

**[09:08]**

It’s been fourteen days since the _ Pneumonic Plague _incident and the emergency department is back to its normal state—with countless patients of different cases, from the common flu to those random ones—like the male patient that they had earlier who had a bottle of shampoo stuck in his… 

Minhyun shakes his head—he doesn’t want to think about that again. 

So yeah—the ED is really back to its normal chaotic state, with staff running here and there, Hyunbin bumping against anything that can be bumped, and the rest of their teammates, who are also his family—smiling, laughing and cursing (whenever they hear a trauma code) as if no traumatic event even happened. 

But that’s the ED for you—and it would always be like that. 

“Doctor _ Prince-charming_!” A young boy calls his attention. Minhyun looks around until he sees the young boy at the corner of the Nurses’ station, beaming and waving at him while his father is busy talking with the ED’s Head Nurse, Jisung. 

“I told you to stop calling me that kiddo,” Minhyun says, ruffling the boy’s hair. The young boy pouts at him and swats his hand away, making Minhyun chuckle at the adorable boy. 

“But Chief Kim told me to call you that.”

Minhyun crouches low so that he’s face to face with the boy and fixes his shirt, “but he’s not your chief, Sian-ah, you shouldn’t listen to him.”

“But—” 

“No but’s—just call me Minhyun hyung,” the young boy pouts at him again. Minhyun clicks his tongue and stands his ground, making the young boy eventually nod. “Good, are you going home now?” 

“Yup! Dada and I are going home! He promised me that we’ll stop by at the ice cream parlor and I can eat all the ice cream that I want!” Minhyun chuckles and ruffles the young boy’s hair. 

“That’s great! Eat all the ice cream that you want, but don’t forget to drink lots of water afterwards, okay? Or you have to see Dr. Ha again.” He said with a wink and the other opens his mouth in horror, remembering how the said Dr. Ha (who’s in charge of his injections) scared the hell out of him. 

“He’s not here right?” The young boy asks timidly, whispering and Minhyun pretends to look around then looks at the boy again. 

“Nope, he’s not.” 

“Good!” The young boy smiles then tugs his father’s hand, telling him that they should leave now before Dr. Ha returns, making all of them laugh. 

“Thank you for taking care of us Dr. Hwang,” the father tells him with a bow. “Please tell Dr. Kim too.” 

“I will, sir, please don’t forget your check-up next week for the you-know,” Minhyun reminds, smiling at Sian who’s afraid of injections. 

“I won’t,” the father smiled and takes Sian in his arms, “say bye bye to them Sian-ah.” 

“Bye bye Doctor Prince Charming and Nurse ahjumma!” 

“I’m not an ahjumma, Sian-ah!” Jisung retorts, stomping his feet and Sian giggles, the father thanks them again and Jisung and him watch the two leave the ED. 

“The worst part… it’s really over huh...?” Jisung whispers as he waves Sian a goodbye. 

“It is,” he replies, smiling at the boy. 

“Good… finally.” The nurse replies in relief as if he can’t believe it; after all, what happened 14 days ago was unimaginable—it was the worst nightmare coming to life—leaving them scathed and in scars that they’ll bear; but it also taught them something: that despite the excruciating pain of watching people passing away in front of them, there’s still hope and Minhyun knows in the future, will be circumstances like that again, or worse, even, but he knows that they’ll survive. 

Scathed—yes,

But they’ll survive. 

Just like Sian and his father and the other 17 patients that survived. 

“I have to finish my rounds with our pain in the ass patients,” Minhyun sighs and Jisung chuckled as he nods, “where’s the Chief anyway? I haven’t seen him since we arrived,” he asks. He didn’t see Jonghyun at all since they went their separate ways in the hospital—he’s not being clingy or anything (moving in with Jonghyun already got rid of that), it’s just weird that he still hasn't seen their chief when it’s almost time for Jonghyun’s rounds in the ED. 

The smile on Jisung face falls and the older sighs, “He’s in a meeting with the board of directors and the department heads.” 

“Again?” 

“Uh-huh, but this will be the last—it’s the final decision after all,” Jisung says, patting him on the back. “Don’t worry though, his knights are there with him,” the older says, pertaining to Aron, Baekho, Cheol, Taeyong and Daniel. “Plus the Chairman and Department Heads are on his side, so I doubt the Board of Directors will be able to kick him out.” 

Minhyun nods—but he’s still worried. Even though what Jisung said is right, still what Jonghyun did was against all hospital rules… and there’s the fact that (to Minhyun’s annoyance) their Chief is actually looking forward to be kicked out of his position. 

“Go check our pain in the ass patients, and please, if you can, convince them to leave the hospital today—we have real patients in need of their beds, after all.” Jisung grumbles. 

“I’ll try hyung, you know how they are.” 

Jisung curses and dismisses him. He takes his things on the nurses’ station and does the last of his rounds, smiling and nodding in greeting as he passes by the patients in the ED until he reaches the room wherein three stubborn-pain-in-the-ass patients are laughing as if death almost didn't take them. 

“Morning your highnesses,” Minhyun smirks, leaning on the door. The pain-in-the-ass trio immediately (again) pretends to be sick and starts whining on how they feel feverish, with one even complaining that his ‘_pulse’ _is slow. Minhyun rolls his eyes and walks in the room, checking on the said patient’s pulse. 

“See? It’s _ slow _ isn’t it?” Jeonghan says and Minhyun rolls his eyes, checking the IV drip that the trio vehemently requested (ordered) for them to put. 

“Your pulse is normal Jeonghan,” he answers, checking on Daehwi this time, “your _ father _ told me that it’s time for you to go home Hwi-ya,” Minhyun says with a menacing smile and he sees Daehwi’s eyes bug out as the younger glances at Minki and Jeonghan (the two evil nurses) in panic. 

“Don’t believe him Dae-Dae! Even if Jonghyun tells you to go home, you don’t have to—I’ll talk to harabeoji and I’ll tell him that we still don’t feel well!” Minki beams, proud of using the _ ‘Chairman’s grandchild’ _privilege. 

“Bub, how about we ask harabeoji to move us in the VIP rooms instead?” Jeonghan suggests to his cousin, and Minhyun tries his best to control his hand, but just like Jonghyun’s, it seems to be uncontrollable that he unconsciously smacks the back of Jeonghan’s head. “DID YOU JUST SMACK MY HEAD?!” 

“My hand slipped—sorry.” Jeonghan scoffs and immediately stands, hand reaching for Minhyun. Daehwi—the lesser evil among the trio—instantly pulls Jeonghan by the waist before the latter can claw Minhyun to death. 

“Thank you my son,” Minhyun beams at the younger and moves away from Jeonghan but, of course, he forgot about the other evil-incarnate and almost falls face first on the floor. Minhyun glares at Minki, but of course, Minki is Minki after all and smiles at him evilly—daring him to try and challenge him; which he will. 

“You know that I’m the physician in charge of you three, right?” Minhyun crosses his arms over his chest and looks at the trio with a wicked smile, implying that he has the upper hand. “And as your physician-in-charge, I’ll finish your discharge papers today,” Minhyun announces with a menacing beam and the trio immediately clings to him, begging him not to. He snickers.

_ Touchè. _

“C’mon Minhyun, let’s be nice, what do you want? A day off? A one-week vacation leave? Just name your price,” Jeonghan offers, pleading. 

“I would _ love _ a vacation leave, but it’s no fun enjoying a week of rest alone, right?” 

“We’ll talk to harabeoji and make sure Jonghyun comes with you,” Minki offers this time. 

“Hmm… That’s a nice idea...” he answers, pretending to contemplate about it—when in fact he’ll take that offer in a heartbeat. He and Jonghyun need a vacation—especially Jonghyun. He needs a break from the hospital to take his mind off things and relax—really relax. It’ll be good for him, especially with his hand tremors issue. 

But the question is, will Jonghyun approve of it? Knowing Jonghyun, he won’t. The latter didn’t even take a break ever since he started medical school and continued non-stop until now—even after Cheol’s accident, Jonghyun didn’t stop—hell, Jonghyun even worked twice, thrice harder and only rested when his body couldn’t take it anymore. 

Though, yes, Jonghyun took his day-offs regularly when things started getting real between them, and took more day-offs when they officially started dating—but still that’s not enough. 

And seeing how Jonghyun’s tremors gets worse over time (though it's because of his anxiety and stubborn ways), a vacation leave will truly help him. 

“But you know how father is...” Daehwi sighed, “you know that he doesn’t know what an off day means—let alone a week off,” 

“True,” Minhyun murmurs, thinking of ways to make Jonghyun agree to it. 

“Well, you have us. We can do anything, you know.” Minki states and Jeonghan nods as they high-five each other. 

“We’ll come up with a _ chief-proof plan _ and make sure Jonghyun comes with you with no qualms or whatsoever.” Jeonghan winks. 

“Good, I’ll give you until 15:15, if not, I’ll process your discharge papers.” Jeonghan and Minki roll their eyes at him and mumbles on how impatient and ungrateful he is as they start brainstorming. Minhyun beams, pointing towards his watch that their time is ticking, making the two curse as they pull Daehwi close to them. Minhyun watches as the trio pitch ideas and Minhyun laughs at the hilarity of Jeonghan’s idea of injecting Jonghyun with a sleeping drug and taking a flight someplace far, leaving Jonghyun with no choice. 

Minhyun feels his phone vibrate in his pocket and he takes it out, reading the notification about their meeting that will be happening in less than an hour. 

“Jisung hyung sent a notification, we have a meeting at the conference room in 25 mins,” he tells the trio, but of course, he gets ignored. Minhyun sighs and decides to text Jonghyun if he wants to eat outside after the meeting but a loud commotion in the hall stops him. He peeks outside and sees Seongwu in a heated conversation with another doctor, even pointing fingers at the smaller one with Guanlin and Seonho holding him in place. 

“I need to go,” he mumbled, immediately running towards the commotion that he didn’t even get to hear that the trio telling him that they came up with the _ bestest-chief-proof plan ever. _

“You have no right to claim that you are _ McDreamy _ because that title is only for Minhyun and Minhyun alone!” Seongwu spits angrily, jabbing his finger on the other doctor’s chest. 

“I HAVE EVERY RIGHT BECAUSE I’M THE _ MCDREAMY _ IN THIS HOSPITAL!” The other barks in the same furious tone with three doctors holding him in place. Minhyun stares at one of the doctors that’s holding the furious one and he squints—making sure that his eyes aren’t fooling him. 

_ Han Seungwoo? _

He gives the other a once-over once again and he’s sure. It’s definitely his sunbae, _ Han Seungwoo. _The other must have felt that someone is staring at him and glances at Minhyun’s way. Their eyes meet and from the worried expression (due to his furious colleague), it turned into confusion to a beam. Han Seungwoo lets go of his colleague’s waist, making the latter fall face first on the floor with the other two doctors who were holding him in place, on top of him. 

“Minhyun-ah?” Seungwoo asks, and Minhyun nods, walking towards the other. “It’s really you, buddy!” Seungwoo remarks, hugging him in a tight hug. 

“It’s been a long time, hyung, how are you?” 

“Good—same as always, as you can see,” the older muses with a chuckle, inclining his head towards the pile of bodies on the floor. Minhyun laughs, remembering the time when he was still studying in Busan and how his sunbae is always caught up in ruckuses like this. “How are you? I didn’t know you moved here in Seoul—even in this hospital! How long have you been here? You should have told me!” The other babbles, tickling Minhyun as if to punish him. 

Minhyun laughs loudly, holding Seungwoo’s hands in his to stop him from tickling him again—little did he know, there’s a doctor on the floor, whose face is turning red in anger and jealousy by the second and glaring daggers at him—and another one by the entrance whose arms are crossed in his chest with his eyebrow raised in a very unamused (and jealous) manner. 

“Sorry hyung, the move happened so fast and I had a lot of things to fix because of the transfer that I forgot,” Minhyun chuckles, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ve been here for two years now,” 

“Two years? And yet you didn’t even remember to text me?” 

“Like I said, a lot of things happened, and I didn’t know that you work here too, so...” Minhyun shrugs apologetically and Seungwoo laughs, pinching him on the cheeks like how he used to do. 

“It’s alright,” Seungwoo muses, “It’s been a long time since I saw you, and you’ve definitely grown into a fine man, though you become cuter my dongsaeng,” the other adds, patting him on his behind like old times, making the doctor by the entrance turn livid in jealousy and stride faster towards them, “I take it that you’re done with your residency?” 

Minhyun nods, “I am, I’m starting my fellowship in a month.” 

“That’s fast, what specialty are you planning on taking?”

“Trauma Surgery, hyung,” 

“Trauma surgery?” Seungwoo claps his hands together, “What a coincidence! I can be your professor! How about it?” The older asks, beaming, and Minhyun smiles awkwardly at the other and gently shakes his head. 

The offer is great, don’t get him wrong and Minhyun knows that Han Seungwoo is one of the best and he’ll learn a lot from him, but he already has Jonghyun, and even though it will be an excruciating fellowship under Jonghyun’s strict guidance… still. 

“Ah… that hyung is...”

“_Unneeded_.” Jonghyun answers, hand automatically snaking around his waist. 

“Chief,” Seungwoo sputters, surprised at Jonghyun’s arrival and the way he’s holding Minhyun by the waist. Jonghyun nods, greeting Seungwoo, and the other bows in return. Jonghyun then stares at Minhyun, pinning him with a pointed glare as his hand on his waist tightens. 

“Hi love,” Jonghyun greets him with a fake smile—definitely annoyed and jealous, “did you miss me, _your_ _boyfriend_?” 

Minhyun doesn’t miss the way Jonghyun put emphasis on the _ ‘your boyfriend’ _ part that he can’t help but beam fondly at the other’s jealousy, as Seungwoo and his colleagues on the floor exclaim in surprise. Minhyun hears Baekho grumble _ ‘here we go again,’,_ as Jonghyun’s other knights (Taeyong, Cheol, Aaron, and the youngest Daniel) laugh in amusement. 

“I did, every minute.” He answers, kissing Jonghyun on the cheek that the _ green-eyed _ monster within Jonghyun immediately diminishes as the latter places a light kiss against his lips. 

“That makes the two of us then,” Jonghyun whispers against his lips and Minhyun can feel the older’s lips curve into a smile. 

“You know what Wooseok-ssi? You can take that title.” Seongwu announces in distaste, staring at Jonghyun and Minhyun with disgust as he helps the other doctors (who was still on the floor) up. “Also, get a room you two—seriously, you’re disgusting.” 

“Oh please, don’t give them that idea again—we just had the on-call rooms sanitized now that they’ve finally moved-in together.” Sungwoon interjects, arriving with a giggling Pinky, Nayoung and Jisung. Han Seungwoo looks at Jonghyun then with newfound respect and interest. 

“I didn’t know you have that side you chief,” Seungwoo comments in a teasing manner and Jonghyun laughs, with his hand covering his face—that Minhyun can’t help but stare at the other as he watches Jonghyun’s eye crinkle with every laugh as the others continue to tease him on how many sides does he really have. 

“A lot, and you’ll get to see that soon,” Jonghyun answers with that signature mischievous smirk of his that always make Minhyun turn into a puddle of goo everytime. Jonghyun’s hand on his waist drops and he instantly feels the emptiness, but it soon vanishes as Jonghyun takes his hand in his and intertwines their hands together. Jonghyun glances at him and winks, then looks back at the team that has now gathered around them. “Shall we? We have a meeting to do, new members to introduce and surgery teams to group again,” Jonghyun beams, looking at everyone. 

**[11:05]**

The meeting went well with their chief dividing them into three Trauma Surgery categories: starting with Pinky along with Cheol leading the surgery team that involves surgeries that need _neurosurgery_. Daniel along with Jaehwan leading the ones that need _ orthopedic surgery, _ and the last two, Han Seungwoo and Jonghyun’s team, will be in charge of the _ trauma surgeries _ that focuses on _ general surgery _ cases. 

Daehwi and him are back on Jonghyun’s surgery team (which made Daehwi jump up in happiness—forgetting the part wherein he has to pretend that he’s still sick) making the whole room laugh at the young resident’s cute actions. 

The introduction went well too, amidst all the antics and ruckus—that not only the former _ ED/Trauma team _usually insinuates, but to their surprise, the newly added members of their team—Han Seungwoo’s team, too. 

Minhyun smiles as he walks towards Jonghyun’s office, remembering the fond fatherly smile on Jonghyun’s face as he watches everyone tease one another as if they’ve known each other for years and not just minutes ago—and to be honest Minhyun feels the same. He’s glad that everyone seems to be getting along (too) well, and he can’t wait until the chaotic department of theirs turn more insane with the addition of the new team. 

Just imagining it makes him laugh, that a nurse looks at him bewildered, but Minhyun couldn’t care less. He’s happy, everything is turning out fine—and that’s all that matters. 

He’ll probably have a new set of people that will probably give him more migraines in the future—but that’s okay, he’s already used to that and has been trained with it by just by being in the same room as Seongwu and Minki, and really, for him—that’s what makes everything worthwhile. Despite all the exhaustion, the stress of being in this field and the part wherein sometimes they couldn’t do anything else to save their patients—he knows that their teammates’ insanity makes it all better. 

Reminding him, that it’s all worth it; that he’s not alone, and that they will always be with him whenever and wherever, just like how he is to them. 

Minhyun pauses and looks at the sky. He sees the beautiful sky blue sky above them and the dark clouds faraway—which is just similar to life. 

A year ago, he was just a lost senior resident—he wasn’t sure if this was really his calling, doesn’t know what to do in his life, if he has anything that he can offer, and if he can be someone that is needed by his patients. He met Jonghyun during that hard time by chance, and though he wasn’t expecting anything else—aside from a good distraction in the form of Kim Jonghyun—things begin to change as he learns more about the latter; how hardworking and passionate Jonghyun is, and how, no matter how ridiculous and almost impossible it is, Jonghyun always and will always do his best until the very end. 

Minhyun’s mindset then began to change. He started trying—doing his best in every possible way that in a span of three months, from being the once lost resident—he was being called in surgeries, being trusted and needed (which was what made Seongwu jealous and hate him, because not only did he snagged Seongwu’s title of “_mcdreamy”, _ he also snagged his position of ‘_Top Resident’ _ in the General Surgery department), and now, he is here. 

A doctor that is needed. 

A doctor that can do something. 

A doctor that can save _lives_. 

Minhyun smiles. A lot has changed in a year. From himself, his career, his friends that he met who are now his family, and lastly, his relationship with Jonghyun. From a _ one night stand, _to now. 

_ “Now,” _ Minhyun murmurs fondly. He doesn’t know how to describe their relationship now.

It was far from the past them where it was full of uncertainty and secrets—definitely far from that. And Minhyun knows, that it’s also far from being just “_boyfriends”, _their relationship is so much more than that and even though things will get hard in the future, that they’ll face hurdles again, Minhyun knows for certain that he’ll be here and Jonghyun will be too, and that won’t ever change. 

Minhyun hums as he starts walking again and smiles at everyone who he passes by. He stops at the familiar door and knocks. He hears a warm voice telling him _‘come in love,’_.

Of course Jonghyun knows that it’s him—after all, he’s the only one who actually knocks on Jonghyun’s office. 

“Hi,” He says, opening the door with a smile, excited for their late lunch date, that is until he sees the state of Jonghyun’s office. 

There are boxes everywhere and Jonghyun is packing his things. 

“Hey you,” Jonghyun smiles at him, putting the last of his files in a box. Minhyun doesn’t answer but instead continues to stare at Jonghyun. Watching as he finishes packing his things away, leaving Minhyun in utter confusion. 

What the hell is this for? Wasn’t Jonghyun staying? He’s sure that Jonghyun isn’t stepping down because he even introduced himself as the chief of the Trauma Surgery department and ED to Han Seungwoo’s team earlier—so what’s all this for?

“Why are you packing?” Minhyun asks, and the panic in his voice doesn’t go amiss, as Jonghyun immediately glances at him in worry, “Why the fuck are you packing, Jonghyun?” 

“Minhyun-ah,” Jonghyun walks towards him, expression gentle, trying to calm him down. 

“I asked you a question, Jonghyun.” Instead of answering, Jonghyun takes his hand and pulls him towards his desk. “You can’t leave—you can’t just leave everything just because you think you don’t deserve the position anymore—your hand, it can be treated—I told you that so many times and _ still _ you didn’t listen—”

“I’m not _ leaving _ love.” 

“You’ve worked hard for this Jonghyun, you can’t just give it up because—wait, _ what?_” Minhyun backtracks, confused at what Jonghyun just told him and stares at the other who’s laughing at him. 

“I said, I’m not _ leaving_.” Jonghyun pulls him closer that he’s in between the other’s thighs. “I’m not leaving Minhyun-ah,” Jonghyun repeats, thumb caressing his cheek.

“Then what’s with all the packing?” Minhyun asks, staring at the other. Jonghyun looks at the boxes all around them and chuckles. 

“The _ Chairman _ wants to renovate my office, because apparently, it wouldn’t accommodate our _ family _ anymore.” Jonghyun muses, staring at him knowingly as if Minhyun knows something about the Chairman’s sudden renovation plan. Jonghyun snakes his hands on Minhyun’s waist, pulling him closer that their faces are only inches apart. “Though it’s kind of sketchy, I mean—I get why I needed to pack my things; I just don’t understand why he ordered me to go on a two-week leave as this office gets renovated and the most hilarious and sketchy part is, why am I going with you to _ Hawaii?_” 

_ The Trio. _

The reason why the trio kept babbling on how he’s lucky and should be thankful that he has them—which Minhyun shrugged off, because he’s not—they gave him more migraines than he ever had in his life in the last fourteen days they became his patients. 

“Hawaii?” Minhyun asks and Jonghyun nods, taking an envelope on his desk. 

“Uh-huh, all expenses paid—the Chairman even gave us pocket money,” Jonghyun says, showing him the tickets, the places that they’ll be staying at, and even a car that they’ll be using that’s all under his and Jonghyun’s name. “Your passport is in our place, right?” 

Minhyun stares at all the documents in astonishment and nods, letting it all sink in. 

“Good, because the Chairman is asking for it and needs it by 12:15 to ensure our visas.” 

“12:15?” Minhyun laughs at the time. He’s really no match against Minki and Jeonghan. He glances at the clock and it’s already 11:24, even if their apartment is just minutes away from the hospital, he wouldn’t make it back in time by 12:15. Jonghyun seemed to understand his thoughts and chuckles. 

“Don’t worry, you don’t need to go to our apartment, Jinyoung is already at our place and is just waiting for a call to tell him where he needs to get it.” 

“Wow.” 

“I know right?” Jonghyun smirks at the incredulity and pulls him closer. Minhyun can feel Jonghyun’s breath against his face, with Jonghyun’s lips ghosting over his cheek. “So, what say you, Dr. Hwang?” Jonghyun whispers breathily against his ear that it instantly sends his senses on fire. “Do you want to spend two weeks with me in Hawaii?” 

Minhyun shakes his head—clearing his mind off the thoughts that always come hand in hand when Jonghyun is being like this to him. There’s no reason for him to say no—he’ll be stupid if he does that, especially when this is what he wanted in the beginning; but he needs a plan to make sure this the vacation is the one they will truly enjoy and will make Jonghyun keep his mind off from the _ ED_. 

“Earth to Hwang Minhyun,” Jonghyun murmurs, biting his earlobe and trailing languid kisses on his jaw. Minhyun grits his teeth, and he feels Jonghyun smile on his neck—loving the way he’s affecting him.

“What’s taking you so long to answer _ love?” _Jonghyun asks. Minhyun sucks in a deep breath as he feels Jonghyun licking his skin, nipping and kissing it—leaving his mark. Minhyun clenches his fist and closes his eyes. He needs to form a plan. 

Jonghyun’s phone rings and the latter takes it from his pocket and intentionally brushes the back of his hand on Minhyun’s growing hard-on. He glares at Jonghyun, and the latter mumbles an apology with a naughty smirk before answering his phone. 

“What’s up,” Jonghyun asks, lips back on Minhyun’s neck as if it’s the most normal thing to do. Minhyun hears Byungchan’s energetic voice on the other line and that they have an incoming multiple-vehicle collision patients on the way. Jonghyun sighs and stands straighter, back to his _ chief Kim _persona with his hand back on Minhyun’s waist. 

Minhyun sighs, understanding that their break is now over. Well, he really should get used to that. Minhyun takes his phone out and checks the available staff, and an idea forms in his mind. 

It would work, but the question is, how will he make Jonghyun agree to it?

“Yeah, announce it using the new trauma code. We’ll be there in five minutes,” Jonghyun says dropping the call. “Well, guess that’s the end of our break, we didn’t even get to have lunch,” Jonghyun clicks his tongue, as he calls someone on his phone, “Where did you put your passport love?”

“In the drawer next to—wait!” Minhyun instantly snatches Jonghyun’s phone and drops it (clumsily again) on the floor. Jonghyun looks at him with his eyebrow raised and well—he’ll apologize for that later but first things first—his plan. “You better come up with a good reason for dropping my phone again or else—” 

“—no phones.” There, he said it. Jonghyun looks at him in confusion, “No phones—I’ll agree with this vacation _ if _ you promise me that you won’t use your phone as soon as we leave the hospital.” 

Minhyun watches Jonghyun’s brows furrow in contemplation and before the other can say something (Minhyun is sure that Jonghyun will come up with a hundred and one excuses on how he can’t do that), Minhyun shakes his head and stares at Jonghyun—that that’s his final decision. “No phones or no vacation Jonghyun, that’s it.” 

Jonghyun closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. Minhyun wants to take back his condition—but not really. This is the only way they can enjoy their needed vacation and though it will be hard for Jonghyun to adjust to it, he’ll get used to it in a day or two. Minhyun hears a loud sigh coming from the other and he tries to stifle a smile—after all, this isn’t an easy decision for their _Chief__. _

“Fine, but—”

“No but’s either Chief,” Minhyun says, adamantly. “The team is full of amazing people that you don’t need to worry about anything,” he reminds him, taking Jonghyun’s hand. “So please, just this once Jonghyun, can we just be _ us _ and enjoy everything?” It takes half a minute before Jonghyun nods and this time, Minhyun smiles and kisses the worry from Jonghyun’s face. 

“Thank you,” He murmurs, kissing Jonghyun. 

“Anything for you love,” 

“Really? Even keeping your framed _ Eureka _ posters in the attic?” Minhyun asks teasingly. 

“Don’t you even dare.” 

“You said _ ‘anything’_,” 

“Of all the things Hwang Minhyun, of all the things,” Jonghyun shakes his head and takes his phone from the floor, calling Jinyoung again, “so where is it?” 

“The drawer next to my closet,” Minhyun beams as they start walking outside of Jonghyun’s office. Minhyun laughs as he listens to Byungchan’s piping voice on the PA as if the younger is not announcing a trauma code—but a promo about something instead. 

** _“PAGING CHIEF KIM, KAMJA IS WAITING FOR YOU AT THE CONFERENCE ROOM!”_ **

“_Kamja, _really?” Minhyun teases as soon as Jonghyun hangs up on Jinyoung. 

“Well, I can’t use _ husband _ when I’ll have mine soon, right?” Jonghyun asks, taking his hand and intertwining it in his.

“And who’s that future husband of yours?” Minhyun asks playfully, raising an eyebrow. 

“Hmm… I don’t know, maybe someone I’ll meet in Hawaii?” 

“Make sure his last name is _ Hwang _ and his first name is _ Minhyun _ then_._”

“I’ll keep that in mind, and Minhyun-ah,” Jonghyun pauses and looks at him with a warm smile, “I love you.” 

Minhyun smiles and places a chaste kiss on Jonghyun’s lips. 

“I love you too, Kim Jonghyun_.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s finally the enddddddddd—I can really say goodbye now to these amazing characters that I ended up loving too much *cries* but anyway, every end leads to a new beginning, so bye HAHAHAHA (kidding) 🤣
> 
> Anyhoo, let me just scream (kidding again) but really—a very very verrrrrrrrry big shout of thanks to[houjunmai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/houjunmai/pseuds/jju_nyaa) for being the bestest and sacrifing herself (charaught—slight) to my countless errors and grammar failures XD I love you be!!! Super duper thank you!! YOU DA BEST!! 😫✊
> 
> And to everyone who enjoyed reading this au and to my friends in twi—who suffered due to my ‘teasers’ and me crying and whining over this fic, thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️ I wouldn’t find the inspiration to finish this if not for your sweet comments & threats 🙃 and my friend G, who I bothered for the med stuff, tenchu besh! Inom tayo soon HAHAHAHAHA
> 
> that’s all! Thank you for reading and I hope you’ll enjoy this (and maybe miss them like I do) ❤️

**Author's Note:**

> You’re welcome to scream at me cc https://curiouscat.me/bugiiwonderland 😂


End file.
